HetaCrusade 2: The Countries Labyrinth
by AliceMariahVirginiaRose
Summary: This is the sequel to my other story HetaCrusade. It has a similar plot-line, but there are also many twists along the way. as well as many new characters! Enjoy
1. Chapter 1

Alright guys! I'm exhausted but here you go! chapter 1! :D enjoy~

Disclaimer: I don't own hetalia

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(Alice)

It was three in the morning. It was three morning and none of them had left yet. They were all still partying it up. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for me, I preferred to get up after the sun had set anyways, but they had me get up so early to come and get them! I wondered how none of them had passed out yet. They'd been up for almost 2 days straight!

I sighed sifting through the mail. There were so many more responses! And so far everyone had checked yes! At this point I wouldn't be discouraged even if someone said no. With all these responses the majority of the world will hold a peace treaty. And with that the others will soon follow.

I moaned as I saw the clock change from three to four. Alright, I need to send everyone home so that I can get at least SOME sleep before meeting with the next 20 nations that had answered my letter. I'd changed some things this time as well as the place. Hopefully that would keep things from getting too violent like the last time.

I walked into the main room. Everyone was still partying. Although Greece had managed to fall asleep on the couch. And then of course Alfred had found my stash of video games.

"OK guys. I realize I said you could come back here and party but it's four in the morning!" I complained rather exhausted.

No one heard me and they continued with what they were doing. I turned the volume on the game Alfred was playing all the way up, and then down to a more reasonable level.

"Hey!" America yelled, while the others just cringed from the sudden blast of music. Heracles blinked his eyes open, waking up.

Well. Now I had their attention, "Sorry. I needed to get your attention. Look I realize I said you could all come back here to party, but its FOUR IN THE MORNING!" I held my head In my head and rubbed at my temples, "I need to be up at six in the afternoon tomorrow to meet with the next group. So if you could please go home so I can get some sleep?" I somewhat begged.

"Ah, si! That's right. You said we were just the first group. So there's more then?" Spain asked.

"Yes. A group of 20 actually. And before you worry. I've changed some things this time, so hopefully it won't get as violent," I sighed, this was a bit awkward.

England stepped forward, "Can I help?"

I was surprised. He wanted to... help? Strange. I figured talking about this would scare most of them out of here rather quickly, " You want to help?" I asked.

"Sure. If you have someone on the inside maybe we can prevent even more violence?" He answered, " besides, you promised to teach me some of your magic."

"Si!~ I would like to help too!" Antonio answered, he looked over at Lovino who was keeping oddly quiet, "And so would my little Lovi!"

"Don't just volunteer me for things tomato bastard!" Romano complained.

"Ve~ me too then!" Feliciano offered.

"NIEN! Italy, and Japan we are starting training tomorrow at noon!" Germany instructed them.

"Ve~ Germany!" Feliciano complained. As he, Kiku and Ludwig left.

I wondered if Ludwig knew that World War 2 was over and the axis disbanded quite a while ago. But I didn't dare bring up a world war here. I'd just managed to get them to stop fighting!

"Are you serious?" I asked a little shocked.

"Oui," Francis answered.

"Ze bad touch trio zticks togezer!" Prussia yelled throwing back another beer. Where did they find all this alcohol!? I'm sure I didn't buy this much! "Kesesese!"

I suddenly caught sight of the clock in the kitchen. It was almost five am!

"Okay you guys! If you want to help out meet me back here at say Eight tonight?" I said pushing them out the door, "but for now let's all get some sleep!"

I sighed leaning against the door. Maybe now I can get some slee- "America!? What are you still doing here?!"

"Just let me beat this level!"

I unplugged the game.

"Aaaahhhh!"

"Go home already!"

"But I hadn't saved it yet!"

"It's not even your game!"

"But. But. All that progress!"

"Alfred. Get out!"

(Later that night)

My alarm went off all too soon. I whined flipping over trying to catch the last few moments of sleep I could. I sat up and turned it off. I guess sleep would have to wait. I only had ten minutes before people started getting here.

I slipped out of bed got dressed and brushed my hair. I was going to be late. It was a five minute walk to the new place. It wasn't complete yet. But it wouldn't take me too long this time. Especially if Arthur helped me create it this time.

It was a bit of a trek into the woods. I hoped they all managed to find it okay. The path was clearly marked and wide enough at least.

I walked out into the clearing to find 15 nations waiting rather impatiently. Romania, Sealand, Wy, Kugelmugel, Seborga, , Seychelles, Monaco, Belgium, Netherlands, Scotland, and Ireland. It was a wonder that they hadn't gone at each others throats yet. Especially N. And S. Korea, "Sorry I'm late guys!"

"If you vere going show up late. Then vhy did ask us to meet you here so damn early?" Romania complained unhappy about waking up before the sun had set.

"So you're the one who organized all this?" Finland asked coming up from behind me with rest of the Nordics.

"Sorry we're late. Denmark held us up," Iceland clarified.

"It's no trouble I just got here too. Sorry Romania, but this time seemed to be the most convenient for everyone. I would have preferred later as well. Anyways as you may have guessed I am A, but you can call me Alice. And I am indeed the one who orchestrated all of this."

"Where's me brother at lassie," Ireland spoke in an old Irish accent, " 'e answered yur letter a few days ago ahnd we 'aven't seen 'Im since."

"Actually he will be with you guys shortly. Now before we begin there are a few things I will need to explain. "

They listened carefully, "First of all what I'm running here is a type of experiment that will hopefully lead to world peace. I will be sending you through an underground maze. The object of course is to get out. But to do this you will all need to find the exit together. If even one of you fails to find the exit it will not open. However, if you all find it, all you have to do is ask. And it will open. Fair enough?"

"So you mean to tell me that this saekki said 'yes to world peace?!" S. Korea pointed to N. Korea, "like I'll believe that one!"

"Well get used to it! Get this into your heads now. Everyone here wishes for world peace," this was growing tiresome. I might need to speed things along.

"What makes you so sure I wouldn't want world peace? Maybe then we we wouldn't be forced to spend so much of our money on military!" N. Korea complained.

"Who's forcing you to spend it all your military?!" S. Korea argued.

Yup. I was going to have to speed things along. There were a few more things I wanted to tell them, but I guess they could wait and be added into the note I would write them. I sighed, "Quit fighting already! Or have you already forgotten why you're here in the first place?"

They stopped talking for now at least. But I knew I had to talk fast or else they'd start up again. "Okay I think we're about ready to begin. If I could have you all just sit down?"

"But I thought you wanted us get through a maze?!" Wy questioned me.

I spoke sternly, "just take a seat. It will all make sense later."

She sat slowly watching me suspiciously. As did many of the other nations.

"As for this next part i'm afraid I'll have to apologize. You won't remember ANY of this when you wake up," I apologized before jumping right into the spell.

Catching what I was implying some of them tried to stop me. But it was to late. As the first syllable of the spell was uttered they had passed out.

I recited the spell clearly and determinedly in magick tongue, "koe wo dashite hanasu yō ni kako no gyaku o okona no kokoro kara no kako o sakujo wa karera no kako ga wasure raremashou mezameta toki no shōrai wa sorera no shōmen ni ichi shite , soreha mote."

Everyone who uses magick has a magick in which they speak when reciting a spell. It's usually a language they can speak well. So quite often it is their first language. However it is ALWAYS a language that holds some deep importance to you. For Arthur, it was Latin. And for me, it was Japanese.

The twenty nations lay in various positions past out in the grass. Sleeping soundly as they awaited what would happen next. In hindsight I wished I had asked Arthur to come a bit earlier to help create the maze. Then I wouldn't have quite so much trouble moving them later.

I headed back to my cabin. I had about an hour to relax before the others showed up.

Back at the cabin I sat at the computer in my "office" and decided to check my emails. The "office" wasn't necessarily a place where I worked, so much as it was the Headquarters for this operation. Its where I wrote all of the letters and monitored their actions during the previous experiment. It's also where I would do the same this time around.

When I checked my email I was actually surprised. 99% of the time my emails were just a few spam letters. So once a month I would just go and clear it. Unless of course I was expecting something. Which of course I wasn't because I had sent all the letters by airmail.

I opened this mysterious email. To find a very angry letter from Ladonia. Ranting about how I'd left him out. Even after including most of the micronation club. I ignored my original instinct to laugh that he was being left out of something like this.

I chewed my lip. He had crossed my mind quite a few times when I was sending out letters. I really wanted to invite him to participate. He was a really fascinating country. There was just one problem.

He was an online nation. Which meant he lived in the computer. I mean that literally. If he wants to he can project himself outside of it, and interact like anyone else. Which he does, frequently. However, given the experiments I was running it would be very hard, if not impossible for him to participate. For starters, I wouldn't know where to begin with removing his memories. The spell I used on the others wouldn't work on him because he was a computer. And the only other thing I could think of was maybe erasing his history from the internet, but then he'd cease to exist. Also, I had no idea how to do something like that.

At the bottom of his three page rant he'd left his Skype contact info. I quickly pulled him up on Skype. By about the third ring he answered. By materializing in my office on the chair across from me at the study desk.

He sat in the chair backward so that he was looking at me. His short orange hair lay lazily in whichever direction he preferred. There was a scar below his right eye and across the bridge of his nose. No one is entirely sure where it came from, but there's a rumor that it's just permanent paint. His expression was smug and also a bit annoyed. Showing that he thought himself more important. His deep blue eyes gleaming with the full impact of his arrogance,"Well hello A," he spoke with attitude like he was annoyed with me, "Are you here to apologize for neglecting to invite me? If you are then I expect you to get down on yours knees and beg."

"Not exactly. You see. It's not that I've neglected you it's that with you being an online nation this kind of experiment would be rather impossible to carry out," I apologized sincerely.

"What? am I just too great a country to be involved or something. You should change your experiment to accommodate me."

"It's not that simple even if I could it would then inconvenience the others."

"So?"

Rubbed the palm of my hand against my forehead, "I think you're missing the point."

Ladonia continued for a few more minutes, ranting about he should be included no matter the inconvenience. I checked the clock once. The others said they'd get here in about 15 minutes.

That's when it hit me, "That's it!" I said allowed startling Ladonia. " I think I've figured out a way for you to be included!"

"About time! Ladonia moaned.

"I have a very special task for you. And it is of extreme importance."

"And it is...?"

"You see in the experiment there are security cameras 'everywhere'. And I could use someone on the inside helping me out. You could keep an eye on them through the security cameras and report back to me."

"Why would I want to do that?" He rolled his eyes.

"For one thing. You're the only one with this advantage. And another. You're the only one who'll know everything that is going on."

"I'm listening," He replied.

"You would be included in the entire experiment along with the other twenty nations... and there might be a few more actually. The only catch is that you would be spying on them the entire time, and I would need reports almost hourly."

He crossed his arms, "I guess I can lower my standards and help. But I'm usually given much more important work."

"Oh you have no idea just how important this job could be! Only the few that participated in this last time know this. But this is actually the second time I've run this experiment. And let's just say that last time things got a bit... violent. Part of your job might need to be keeping the peace. Knowing everything puts you in a place to do this. You might have to at some points literally keep them from killing each other. Now, being the one who knows everything means you'll need to keep many things secret from everyone. I will warn you once now, if you let any of these secrets slip, I won't hesitate to pull you out of there," I answered seriously.

"Alright I get it! So what are these secrets you're so keen to keep?" Ladonia asked.

"Most of the nations you will be with will not have any memories. They don't know who they are. Or anything other than the place they'll be in. Therefore you can't let them know anything about who they are or why they are there. However amazingly, some of the nations from last time decided they wanted to come back and help. So they will be doing the same as you. Keeping the peace. Except once they are inside I will lose contact with them. I might have you at some points deliver messages for me. However you can't let in that you know what's going on either."

"So who are the others?"

"I don't have a full list yet. England, Spain, Prussia, and France for sure. And some others might turn up in... ten minutes. I will get you a full list once everything gets started. I'll see you in less than an hour. OK?"

"Wa-" I ended the call. And his material form disappeared.

I had only just ended the call with Ladonia when I heard a knock at the door. Could I not catch five minutes?! I opened the door to see America standing there playing, a game I didn't recognize, intently on his Nintendo DS.

He walked in as soon as the door was open without looking up. "Umm. Come on in?" I said as he completely ignored me.

"Don't mind him," England sighed walking through the door. He's been like this the entire way here."

"You two drove here together?"

"No. I just followed him in a cab. The way that kid drives! I think I had the poor cabby thinking we were spies or something!"

"You're just exaggerating! The taxi drivers around here are used to driving like that."

"How many times must tell you! It is a cab. And a cabby! Not a taxi and a taxi drivers! Learn proper English you git!"

"English? What's that? I've been speaking American!"

After that comment England wasn't about to let America go with just a light chastising. It wasn't long before they were arguing at a pace I couldn't keep up with.

Behind them France emerged. "Why don't you both just learn french?"

Suddenly the fighting got much worse. I ignored it. Sometimes if you were lucky they would work it themselves.

The main door had been left open after France had snuck in. I could see why. Three more people came in. Prussia and Spain cheering as they came in. Clearly drunk. Behind them poor Romano sulked over to the corner. I had a feeling he was just in a car with the three of them. I instantly felt for him.

The door was left open but I heard from Arthur that there were a few more coming yet so that was okay.

I started talking to Romano who was clearly upset about being here. "You OK?" I asked.

"Why the hell wouldn't I be?!" He pouted.

"Well for one thing you were just in a vehicle with the bad touch trio... and I'm assuming too much alcohol. What happened?"

"Augh! My damn brother left this morning and I missed my stupid flight. So now I'm stuck with these bastards!" He complained. But he didn't seem genuinely upset at all.

"Well. If you don't want to be here. I'm sure I can get America to get you a ride back home," I offered and started to walk away.

"Wait," he look away " I mean I GUESS I can help out with this... since I'm here anyways!" He offered. Showing his Tsundere nature.

I smiled back at him, before spinning around after hearing a loud, CRACK!

Hungary appeared behind Prussia, still holding her frying pan firmly as Prussia clutched at his head. Spain was laughing in hysterics as Prussia lay on the floor, "Vhat Ze 'ell Hungary!"

I came up next to her and confiscated her frying pan. "Hey I was using that!"

"Not anymore!" I yelled back taking it to my "office".

I rolled my eyes as I realized I could still hear them from the otherwise of the house. On the way back suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. It had suddenly gotten really quiet. And then suddenly America's scream pierced that silence.

I ran as fast as I could. The remainder of the distance to the entrance. Russia stood over America with a devilish grin. "What's wrong America? You look like you've seen a ghost." He placed a hand on America's shoulder.

Lithuania stood next them confused as to whose side to take, "aa-umm Mr. America? P-please stop whatever it is you're doing that puts that face on Mr. Russia."

America just froze in terror. China pushed past me before I could help. "Aiyaa! I leave to make food for five minute and you already starting world war three!"

"Russia? China? When did you two get here?" I asked.

"About ten minute ago aru," China clarified for me.

"Oh. But I was just saying hello to our friend America, da?" Russia said innocently.

China sighed, "I guess it fine he already passed out from shock now anyway aru."

AAannnddd... that's my cue to step in. "Alright you guys break it up. We've only got a few hours until the other nations wake up, and we still have the whole place to make."

Only England was in earshot, "Shall I help you?"

"Yes. If you would. But first I need to make sure they won't burn my house down!"

China walked back into the room after mysteriously disappearing for a moment. He came back carrying an armful of plates with food.

"That'll work. China's cooking should keep them distracted for at least long enough to get this done. Should we sneak out the back?" I asked.

England nodded following closely behind. we snuck out the back exit, behind the kitchen. I put us a little bit out of the way from the trail leading down to the new place, but it was worth it since we'd managed to get out unnoticed. Magick of this sort was particularly delicate. Extra people would just leave room for error in this process.

Once our feet set down on the trail I relaxed. The air was just right. It was a beautiful, crescent moon night. and there was only light cloud cover. Any other time I would just lay back here and enjoy it. But I had important work to do tonight.

"aahh! Isn't this weather perfect!" I exclaimed letting the cool night air surround me.

"I guess it's nice," England replied.

"sorry. I just sort of let that slip. I just love how beautiful the weather can be late at night," I can't wait to see more of it later! I stopped a few feet away from the clearing, "ah. Here we are."

In the Darkness the clearing looked much different. More how I imagined it would I guess.

England caught sight of the twenty nations asleep off to the side under several blankets I'd left for them, "Is it really safe to leave them like that? What happened to them anyways?"

"I just used the spell to erase their memories, I'd used on you guys earlier. Puts them right out for about four - five hours. And. Yes I'd consider them safe here. I know these woods like the back of my hand. And they've only been here for less than an hour."

"So their memories will still be erased then," England muttered to himself, trying to keep together although the new changes this time.

"Yes. So, I will need you and the others not to let it slip who you are. Or who they are. If you do I'm sorry but, I'll need to pull you from here instantly. And then you really can't help them."

England sighed. It made sense. Not that he liked it, "So this place you need me to help you set up. Where is it?"

"Right here actually," I handed him a map I drew, "It's an underground maze. A Labyrinth if you will."

"How the bloody hell are we supposed to build this in one night!" He exclaimed.

"Simple. Magick"

"I've never used Magick on something like this."

"You've never tried," I retorted. "Magick is used in different ways. Mine is used for purposes such as this. It draws It's power from the elements, and creates. However, your magick is drawn from the power of your country. Which makes it much stronger. But then it is usually used for different things. Care to give this a try?"

"I suppose so. What exactly do I do for a spell such as this?"

"Well spells like this require merely an image and your voice," I began, "Study this map. And listen as I recite the spell. After you feel comfortable join in with words of your own. Focus is very important in spells such this. Remember to keep your hands planted on the ground during the spell."

"Alright. Simple enough."

"Ready?" I checked with him before beginning.

He nodded.

I had already had the image of the map etched into my mind. I placed my hands firmly on the ground and repeated this firmly, "Nentou ni oite kono basho de watashi ga tazuneru. Daichi no chikara ga idō shi, sore o sakusei suru tame ni mageru koto ga arimasu. Watashi ga motomeru kenkyona meiro. Kabe wa ganjōde tenjō saundo meiku. Watashi wa sore o sakusei suru no ni yakudatsu yōso o kansha shimasu. Sō sore wa mote."

Half way through the spell. England joined in with his own, "cum in hoc loco mentem precor. q viribus terras et illum locum. labyrinthus peto. ut parietes et tectum durum sonat. Gratias ago quin elementis q. agere tamen nescio."

As we finished reciting it for the third time, I could feel the door beneath me materialize. I looked up to see the blank clearing. As I'd asked, the sleeping nations had been moved inside. I opened the door and looked in. It was six foot drop to to the bottom of the maze floor. "Thanks England! I'm going to rearrange some things down here! Can you get the others and meet me back here? see you in a bit!"

As I moved through the tunnels of the maze England called back, "Next time it's my turn to teach you a thing or two about magick!"


	2. Chapter 2

I apologize for how late this is guys. I meant to have it up by last week, but we were camping and I was really busy afterwards. I ended up spending all of today writing about half of this. ^_^ so yeah I hope you enjoy! And I will try to get the next chapter up on time, but school starts next week for me so that might slow me down a bit. But I won't abandon it so don't worry. (I'm probably the only one who worries about stuff like that -_-')

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(The Nations)

After being lowered into the now lit maze, the returning nations looked up at Alice. There were lights now, from battery powered torches, which must have been one of the things Alice had done while they were on their way. Giving it light gave the place less of an ominous feeling, but that didn't mean the danger was gone. All of them there, knew what they were getting themselves into. Some things might be different this time, but they were volunteering to enter into a world of hell. Maybe this time wouldn't be as bad. That was why they were here. They wanted to see if they could keep someone from dying. If they could help direct them towards the peace they were being offered. Why else would they enter such a nightmare?

Alice spoke from above, "Alright. Each of you are assigned to rooms! You don't have to stay there, but that's the group I want you to take care of, alright?" She took out a piece of paper. Apparently she'd given this some thought, "In room one which will be to your left, we have Russia, and China. And then to your right in room 2 we have England, Spain, France, and Romano."

"Wait," England exclaimed, "You did NOT just stick me in the same room as that bloody frog!"

"I really hoped you wouldn't figure that out till later. Sorry but considering the people in that room I figured it most fitting."

"There is no way in hell that I'll sit in the same room as him!"

"Oh don't be zat way Mon cher. It iz only for a little while," France teased England.

"I demand a room change!" England declared.

"Denied," Alice answered, "You'll just have to suck it up for a little while," She continued, "Near the end of this main tunnel there are two more rooms. Rooms three and four. In room three we have, Lithuania, Hungary, and Prussia. And that leaves America to room Four."

"What? There are four of us in my group. How come America is in a room by himself?" England continued to complain.

"It's just how it worked out. I put important groups of people together. And also tried to keep the the number per group relatively close," She sighed, "Now before I close this entrance. There are a few things I need to make clear. First of all. You CAN NOT tell anyone who they are or what is happening. You can offer words of support. And be vague when referring to the past but do not reveal yourself. If you do, I will not hesitate to pull you from here. And then you'll be of no help to them. That being said I will also leave you the key to reviving someone."

Many of the nations stirred at the thought of this. Knowing how to revive someone was something they hadn't expected this early. Not unless it was the same as before. This is what they believed they needed most.

"You can tell the others if you want / need to, but you can't let them know why or how you know, " Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "How it works is, the country that killed the one 'to be revived' must truly wish to bring them back. Enough to use the weapon they used to kill them on themselves. Not in a way that could kill themselves of course. And either etch into these solid floors, or write in their own blood 'forgive me'. I know it sounds awful and gruesome, but we're hoping to keep people from dying in the first place. So let's not let it get there. OK?"

It was a double edged blade, knowledge. The more they knew the more help they could be. But with that knowledge they almost wished they didn't know to begin with. Ignorance was bliss. But they couldn't stay ignorant forever. Knowing this piece of information was vital. Even as awful as it was.

"Also, I'll be keeping an eye on everyone. So if you need anything you just need to ask," She checked her watch, "I'll keep this short, because you only have a few minutes before the others start to wake up. Getting out is simple this time. You need to find the exit. Get everyone to put aside their weapons and ask to leave."

"That's all?" Lithuania asked.

"That's all there is to getting out. Sorry. But that's all I can tell you. Good luck!"

The entrance above them closed. Leaving them to fend for themselves.

(China)

They stared at the now closed entrance for a minute. As if to let it all sink in. At this point, there would be no turning back.

Russia took one last look before turning around to stare down the illuminated corridor, "Come on Yao. We have to find this room, da?"

"Ah. That's right aru," China followed him if a bit reluctantly.

They made their way down wide pathway. For a stretch it seemed fairly straight. Then they came across their first turn.

"She did say our room was to the left. Right aru?" China tried to clarify.

"Da, I think so," Russia started to walk down the path. China followed behind him.

Russia continued to lead them down that path until they reached a wall, and were forced to turn right. And after traveling down that one for quite a ways they had to turn right yet again, putting them back on the original path. They could even see the other nations beginning to make their descent through the maze.

"Aiyaa! These tunnels are all mixed around! How are we supposed to find our way around aru!?"

"Ah! I think I've found something useful!" Russia called China over.

China turned back around to find that Russia had moved ahead of him. China quickly caught up, "What is it aru?" He looked at what Russia was studying, "Aah, I see so there's actually a few maps in here."

The map was square and the height of half the wall. At a closer look there were a few irregularities with it. Unlike a normal map not everything was labeled. Of course the entrance and exit wasn't labeled. But more urgently, Alice had neglected to label where you were on the map.

"Agh! Why is this map so confusing aru?!" He began to deduct their surroundings on the map. "So this here," He pointed to the longest tunnel which ran through the middle, "Must be the main tunnel. And since I don't remember an immediate turn at the entrance aru. This end must be it."

"Wha~ You're good at this Yao!" Russia cooed admiring how quickly China was figuring out their position on the map.

China barely noticed Russia's coos as he focused on figuring out their exact point on the map. He cocked his head to the side. His ponytail falling off his shoulder in the process. "So if we took the first left that would have led us through this loop aru. And then... ah! This here aru! It's marked as a map location. So if we want to make it to room 1," He traced his finger along the path, "We just take the next left, follow it for a bit, and take the next left after that aru."

Russia put a hand on China's shoulder. Making China cringe momentarily, "Good job Yao. Now let's go, da?" Russia smiled.

"Ah, yeah," China followed him quietly. He could tell just how fake that smile of Russia's was.

The path they took, took them way back. He wondered why there weren't too many turns. It didn't make it nearly as confusing as he originally thought. They passed a turn to the right and quite a ways further in they did find that left turn.

"Phew! I thought we'd never find this turn aru! These tunnels just stretch on forever aru!" China exclaimed.

"Da, it really does seem that way," Russia agreed, and began heading down the tunnel.

China followed a bit slower, he knew at the end of this one, was the room they were supposed to go to. But he wasn't sure he was ready to go in there yet. Yes, he had decided to come back and help everyone, but he wasn't sure he was ready to see everyone. None of them would know who he was, and he couldn't exactly tell them. It was all a bit frightening. When he saw the door just a few feet ahead he halted, "Umm. Wait up a second Russia."

Russia turned around, "What is it Yao?"

"I don't know. I just really don't want to go in there aru," China let out.

"Don't worry. Its much scary out here right now. Now why don't we go in, da?" Russia assured him.

Suddenly China was eager to get out of this tunnel. Something about the way Russia had said it, "a-ah yeah. Your right aru." China hurriedly went through the door and into the room.

Five small nations lay curled up under a blanket in the middle of the room. The large room was dimly lit. Only one of the lanterns was lit. And it illuminated only the corner of the room. A note was tacked to the wall over there. But they ignored it for now.

China stepped further in, to get a closer look at the nations they would be trying to protect. "Ah. They're just kids," He recognized a few of them as micronations, "What are the micronations doing here aru!?" He recognized two of them as WY, and Seborga. And then, wasn't Sealand, a British port?! What was he doing here? He wasn't sure about the other two. But he assumed they were micronations as well.

What was Alice thinking! Letting kids into a place like this!

(England)

They let Russia fade from sight before following in that direction. Everyone started heading in about the same direction. Right before they reached the turn, China came back into view. Apparently these tunnels were really twisty.

The others slowed down a bit, to let Russia fade from sight again. England however, began to lead his group down the tunnel to the right, "I believe she said our room is to the right, so follow me guys," England shouted before heading heading in that direction. He still had a vague idea of what the map looked like. The room was somewhere close by.

"Hey! Who said you got lead us!" France complained. Following the rest of the group.

England sighed, "Well I did help build it. I think I can remember my way around still."

"Ah! That's right you came out here with Alice earlier. So if you helped build this place, then you should have a pretty good idea of how to get around," Spain realized.

England nodded leading them to the left towards where he believed the room should be, "Yes, I still have the image of it in my head. But I don't know if I'll be able to find anything other than the rooms," And even then his memory was failing him.

"Hey! Check it out Roma! We actually found the room pretty quickly!" Spain called seeing the door just ahead of them with the number 2 written across it.

Romano was following quite a distance behind them stubbornly, "I can see that! I'm not an idiot! Just leave me alone already!"

"He's still upset because his brother ran off and left him here," Spain clarified.

"I am not!"

"Come on. We should see who was brought in this time," England pushed. He stepped through door.

Four nations lay curled up under a blanket. They were quickly recognized as Belgium, The Netherlands, Scotland, and Ireland. The room was a bit more illuminated than Russia's and China's, but it was still very dim. None of them noticed the note that stuck to the back of the door. That would have to be looked at later.

"What the bloody hell are my damn brothers doing here?!" England almost shouted, causing France to put a hand over his mouth. The sleeping nations stirred but hadn't woken up yet.

England squirmed in anger trying to break free. And once everyone had settled down again France let him go. "What the bloody hell Francis!?" England yelled causing the nations to stir once again.

France clapsed his hand over England's mouth once again, "Shhh. Quiet Mon Cher, we don't want them to wake up."

England managed to break free this time, "I don't see why the bloody hell not! They're going to wake up pretty soon anyways right?"

(Prussia)

Now that Russia was clear from this side of the tunnels Prussia charged forward, "Kesesese, I am zo awesome I bet I can find ze room before anyone else!" He yelled through the hallway.

Hungary chased after him, "Prussia! Get back here! You need to stick with the rest of us!"

"U-umm," Lithuania started to protest but they went out of sight. He went back to studying the map. He had a little trouble placing them but he managed to figure out where they were and how to get to their room from there.

"Prussia I swear you've been leading us in circles," Hungary complained. Why did he never listen? He'd always been like that too ever since they were kids. You'd think she'd have figured out by now that that's just who he is.

"Kesesese, you just want me to zink zat! I know exactly vhere ve are going!" He answered her. Although he was honestly more than a bit lost. He'd already slowed down to a walk.

"Ah! I actually found you guys!" Lithuania called from behind.

Hungary spun around to see Lithuania quickly closing the remaining distance between them, "Lithuania! I'm so glad you managed to find us! Sorry, I had chase after this one or else he'd be lost in these tunnels for weeks! ... as it is we're kind of lost now actually."

"Ve are not!" Prussia called starting to turn left again.

"Oh, well I found a map back there. A-and I think I know the way," He suddenly noticed where Prussia was headed, "U-umm, Mr. Prussia, sir. It's um this way." He point straight ahead.

"I knew zat I was just testing you!" Prussia turned around, "Zince you zay you know vhat vay it iz."

"A-ah, so sorry sir," Lithuania apologized.

"Don't let him get to you. He treats everyone like this," Hungary explained to him.

"Thanks."

"You guys coming or vhat?!" Prussia yelled back before opening the door.

Inside four nations lay huddled under a blanket. Still clinging to sleep. Three of them were recognized right away as South Korea, Monaco, and Poland.

"So Poland's here this time," Lithuania muttered to himself. They were very good friends so it surprised him to see Poland just 'turn up' like this, "Does anyone know who this country is?" He asked pointing to the fourth which everyone was having a bit of trouble with.

They shook their heads, "But then Hungary noticed something, "Wait. That curl to the side of his face. It matches South Koreas... Only on the opposite side. You think this could be North Korea?"

Everyone took a visible step back. They had rarely seen him, due to his self imposed isolation. Most of them barely had an idea of what he looked like. Needless to say the idea of sharing a room with him made them all a bit on edge.

(Romania)

His eyes flew open in a panic. Something didn't feel right. Or rather nothing felt right. The room was only filled with light from a very dim lantern, but it was enough to drive him crazy. It was too much light for him right now. He needed the dark. He needed at least that. Then maybe then he'd be able to think.

He had to cover his eyes to turn off the lantern, up close it was just that bad.

Once he'd managed to get the light off it was better. Although still nothing seemed right. He was completely uncomfortable. The air felt thick in there. He contemplated heading out of the door, but the idea of opening it into possible blinding light terrified him. He could see just fine here in the dark.

After having a few minutes to calm down his mind began to wander. He still felt excruciatingly uncomfortable, but for now his mind was pushed him to think of other things.

Like this place. Where exactly was he? He tried to think of how he could have gotten here but couldn't. Then he realized, he couldn't remember anything. Not even his own name. What in hell was going on?!

To make matters worse he suddenly discovered he wasn't alone. Six other's were also curled up under the blanket he'd woken up under. How could he possibly have missed that! Well actually he did remember. But it was overcome by the pain the lantern had caused his eyes. What were they all doing here?! He needed answers. And soon, before his head exploded.

There was a pounding in his head which he assumed to be a headache. But in actuality it was quite different than a headache. It was a constant humming. Beating again and again inside his head. Like drum beats. 1-2, 1-2. Again and again. Ceaselessly.

He put his hands over his head covering his head trying to make it disappear. But it wouldn't. His hearing was too sensitive.

That's how he picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. He braced himself for a fight. In his mind this was most likely whoever set this up. He took notice of a stash of weapons that lay against the far wall. He grabbed hold of the dagger, clutching it tightly. Preparing himself for the very moment the door opened. He listened carefully following the distance of the footsteps.

They suddenly stopped. Then the door flew open, allowing all the light to flow in. Causing him to lose his focus.

"Shit. Why is it so dark in here?" The new person asked fumbling around for the lantern, the door remaining half ajar.

"Who are you?! And vat are you doing here?" He demanded an answer from this newcomer.

It was only then that America suddenly noticed him. He had to create his excuse quickly. He hadn't expected to find someone awake, "Ah! Someone else is actually awake! I've been wandering around here for hours! I just came back to see if anything new had come up. Which I can see something has! Here just let me get this light," America flicked it on.

A relief settled over him. So it wasn't their kidnapper at least. The light that guy had just turned on was annoying as hell right now, but being on the opposite side of the room made it bearable.

'Shit! It was Romania!' America thought. The whole idea of the supernatural and especially the undead, made him uneasy. And while no one had yet to "prove it", Romania was very clearly a vampire. Right down to the fangs and red eyes.

He quickly looked over the nations he was supposed to look after. He was terrible with geography, but he managed to at least recognize most of them. Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark were there. And he was pretty sure the girl was Seychelles. Although he'd never officially met her.

With that out of his head he looked around for a note. There had to be one right? How else was he supposed to figure out what to call them?

He then spotted it on the inside of the door, "did you see this?" He asked Romania.

Romania answered, "no. Vat is that? A note?!"

"Well... it sure looks that way. Hey dude! It tells us what are names are!" America told him, "But you'll have to get back to the order you were asleep at.

Romania complied returning to the end unfortunately closest to the lantern, "Does this vork?" He asked sitting in the correct spot but with his back turned away from the lantern.

America looked up only to check his position, "Yeah that's fine. Let's see. Your name is... Vladimir Lupei."

Vladimir Lupei huh? That could work. It was as good a name as any. It's not like he held any attachments to it as of yet.

Ugh! But he need to get away from that light. He got up quickly trying to move back over to the other side of the room. He ended up tripping over someone. Causing them to stir.

"Wah? What the hell? Its too early for this shit!" He started out almost quietly. Then he sat straight up, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" He suddenly screamed in a panic, his blonde hair sticking up in a mess.

That was all it took. Just a few moments later all the others were up too. "Quiet down. Please! I can't take it this early in the morning," The one with the curl said rubbing his forehead. He stopped and looked up for a moment, "What the hell?" He said.

The blonde guy with the note took over, "OK! Look guys. We're all just as confused as you. But we found this note so I should be able to at least tell you who you are. And maybe we can even get some things explained."

"So who am I then?!" The one Vladimir tripped over yelled obnoxiously. Seriously! Did that guy have some sort of hearing problem?! Because he was starting to give Vladimir one.

"Dude! Chill out. I'll move down the row. Michelle Bonnefoy," Was the first name he called out. And the name belonged to the girl who rather awkwardly sat on the edge of the group, just as confused as the rest. Her blackish brown hair in two long pigtails with red bows shaped her tanned skin. America recognized her as Seychelles.

"Tino Vainamoinen," sat next to her and a little girly himself although still clearly a boy. He spoke softly and had soft look to his face. A white hat sitting atop his light blonde ear length hair. America knew him as Finland

"Berwald Oxenstierna," America knew Berwald as Sweden. Although he had a great deal of trouble with the last two last names, and subsequently, he undoubtedly messed them up. Berwald kept a straight face and merely stared at Tino. He had light blue eyes that remained hidden behind glasses, and his hair was a bit shorter than Finland's. He wore a dark blue coat and matching hat, that had a strap that connected under his chin.

"Emil Steinsson," had silvery hair, although he was actually quite young. His country name, although kept secret, was Iceland.

"Mathias Kohler," This was the loud country Vladimir had tripped over earlier. His hair was naturally spiked up more, making most of his hair on the top of his head. His outfit was comprised of mostly black and red. Including his hat, which somehow managed to stay on. It was similar in style to Berwald's minus the strap. He was quickly recognized as Denmark.

"Lukas Bondevik," was the last of the Nordics. His hair color was close to that of Iceland's although a bit longer, and he also had curl to the right of his face, and a clip in his hair that resembled the Nordic cross. America knew he was Norway.

"Then we have, Vladimir Lupei, and I'm Alfred F. Jones."

Well that should at least save Alfred the trouble of waking everyone up. And now they had introductions out of the way too! That would make this next bit a bit easier. He recalled his time back in the forest. It wasn't more than three days ago that he'd been in the same position as them.

They all looked somewhat frightened and confused. And yet they hadn't seen anything truly frightening yet. A part of him wanted to go up to them and explain what was happening, and tell them it would all be OK. But he couldn't. For two reasons really. The first was obvious, if he did Alice would know instantly and he wouldn't even get a chance to explain. Secondly, if he did what were the chances they'd believe him? He didn't like his odds on that. So he wagered his best option was to keep a close eye on them, and wait until one of them appeared to need his help.

"Alright guys! Let's get this over with! There's a lot of ground to cover on this note," Alfred encouraged them.

(North Korea)

Sleep was already ebbing away from him when he realized he heard people talking over him. He lay there a moment too startled to get up. Who were they? He didn't recognize the voices... or the area he was sleeping in for that matter. Or... anything. The realization of this is what caused him to finally get up.

He almost didn't want to deal with it. He turned over once before sitting straight up to get a good look at his surroundings. The three other nations were visibly on edge, and stared straight at him.

The room was dimly lit, but the light could be turned up more. Also, there were another three nations that were still sleeping. Although even they were starting to wake up now.

He rubbed at his head, "What? What is this place? Who are all of you?!"

That's right. She reminded herself. He might be North Korea, but here, they weren't the same. So many things could be changed about them because they didn't have a past to shape them. This was not the North Korea they knew. Or didn't know. To be fair all they knew about him was rumours.

At this point she noticed on the opposite side of the room wake up. "Huh?" He said through sleepy brown eyes. Those eyes widened as he suddenly realized the strange setting, "Where the hell is this?!" He looked down at his hands almost panicky. Looking for something he recognized, "Wh-Who am I?"

Some nations handled the shock better than others. S. Korea was one of the ones that didn't handle it too well.

North on the other hand remained peculiarly calm, "I was just asking the same thing," N. Korea said suspicions rising in his voice.

He had no reason to trust them. Especially the three who were awake before him. What were they talking about then? He hadn't been able to make it out.

The medium brown haired girl in the green dress answered their question so to speak. "I don't know. We've been trying to figure that out too. We were too scared to try and wake any of you up. But the three of us have been up for just a bit longer than the rest of you. So far, all we know, is that none of us can remember before we woke up. And also, that we're trapped somewhere inside this ridiculous underground maze!"

Catching on what Hungary was playing on. Lithuania added his own findings. Just moments ago he'd discovered a note, taped discreetly on the wall behind the door, "U-Umm," he began hesitantly, "T-Then there's this," He pulled out the note, "I found it just a moment ago. We haven't had a chance to read it yet but it might explain some things."

"Vell come on zen! Let's hear it!" Prussia said.

"Does it say who we are at all?" S. Korea wondered.

"Yes. It's actually the first thing it mentions," Lithuania told him, "b-but I think we should wait till the others are awake first."

"I don't have time to zit around und vait! Just vake zem up!" Prussia started gently shaking the two nations that were still sleeping soundly.

"U-um. Pr- I mean please don't. I wouldn't do that," Lithuania tried to stop him, but it was already too late.

The two stirred and were soon wide awake as well.

"Wha?" Monaco complained.

They then explained what they were allowed to tell them, and about the note that was far more pressing.

"Well now that everyone's awake I guess we can all figure out our names," Hungary suggested.

Lithuania nodded and began reading them aloud, "The one the left is Im-Yong Soo," Im-Yong had short dark brown hair, and of course the brown eyes. His brown hair was parted so he didn't have bangs, and as for the curl, it was almost a full loop, but not quite, and it was longer than the italies curls were. As for his outfit. It was a mostly white baggy shirt that had long drooping sleeves, and was purple/blue in the center. The tie in the center matched as well. And he also had white baggy pants.

"Next one down is Feliks Lukasiewicz," His hair was about the same in style and length as Lithuania. It was just and inch or two above shoulder length, perfectly straight, and parted down the middle. However Lithuania's hair was brown. And Feliks's was platinum blonde. Feliks had green eyes, and his love of the color pink was extremely apparent. He wore a plain pink shirt and a white sweater vest with a hot pink tie over top of it.

"Mona Bonnefoy," her blonde hair was the same color as France's as that was her brother. Although her hair was straighter than his. Her hair was VERY long. Down almost to her hips and in a long loose braid. And she also had blue eyes, although hers were more of a lighter shade.

"Hyung Soo," N. Korea looked an awful lot like his brother. But some of the defining features would be North had bangs. They were a bit directionless on his face but went down just far enough to cover his eyebrows. The other one would be the curl. He had one too. But his went to the right side of his South's. And then his outfit even looked incredibly close. The only difference being the color. South Korea's was red instead.

"And then, I'm Toris Lorinaitis. And this is Elizaveta Hedervary, and Gilbert Beilschmidt."

(Scotland)

He awoke to several hands gently shaking him. "But it's soo early!" He complained, turning over.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" The voice above him complained, "We have no idea what time it is."

This confused him, and he started wondering about some other things. Like where he was. And who were all these people he suddenly began to notice.

He sat up, "What in hell?!" The dark room was dreadfully unfamiliar. As was everything. He didn't even recognize himself. He tried to think back to how this could have happened but came up with a blank. What was going on here?!

The blonde haired kid with giant eyebrows spoke to him, "Good now you're all awake and we can start getting some answers!"

France chastised England, " You're being a bit rash aren't you?" He sighed, " Well I guess zince zey are already awake. We might as well go over zis note."

"So ther' is some explanation then?" Ireland asked.

"Si~ we found it earlier. But Arthur insisted we didn't read past our own names until everyone was up. Fusososo but he got a bit tired of waiting," Spain answered.

"So who is Arthur?" Belgium asked.

"Hold on Ro- Lovino is going to read it off," Arthur explained, cutting it close on names.

"Why do I have to do it?!" He complained.

"Well you're the one who found it. Did you not want to?" Arthur asked.

"Whatever, bastardo. I'll read it," Romano complied, "aah, Anri Vries," This was Belgium. she had short chin length golden blonde hair and green headband. She had emerald green eyes, and wore tan clothes.

"Abel Vries," This was the Netherlands. He had short blonde hair that was slicked straight up. He had ice blue eyes, and wore a long dark brown coat with a blue and white striped scarf. To add to his features he always looked serious.

"Seamus Kirkland," Seamus was also known as Ireland. He had blonde hair but it had a golden cast to it that resembled more of an orange hair color. Style wise it looked like Scotland's. He had dark green eyes and freckles. He also had thick eyebrows like England but they were still not that thick. He wore a military outfit similar to the one England wore, but his was shamrock green.

"Allistor Kirkland," Was known as Scotland. He had fiery red hair that was somewhat parted in the center so his bangs curled around his face. The length of his Hair otherwise matched Arthur's. He had teal/green eyes, and he wore blue military coat with two white sashes on either side that made it resemble his flag. He had thick eyebrows too, but they were red and not as pronounced as England's.

(Ladonia)

He wondered how long he should pretend to be sleeping. Alice had told him, everyone to expect in here, and that included the two that were in here now. Russia and China. He decided it would be too suspicious if he was the first one to wake up, so he kicked sealand who was asleep next to him. He tried to make it look like he was just stirring in his sleep.

Sealand woke up right away, "Ow! What was that for?!" He rubbed his eyes of sleep. Then froze out of realization, "Wh-Where the bloody hell am? What's going on?!"

China tried to calm him down. Now that the nations were waking up he had to take some action, "It's alright aru. We don't know either, but we're going to figure it out aru."

Ladonia heard the others beginning to wake up, and decided now was probably a good time for him to as well. He turned a bit under the blanket, and sat straight up, "What the hell?! Why can't I remember anything?!" He said to appear like the rest of them.

""Over here. I think I've found a note," Russia announced pulling it off the wall.

Ladonia had expected as much. First they'd all agree they had no Idea what was going on. Then they'd 'Find' this note that Alice had left. Of course Ladonia had already seen this note, and he assumed Russia and China had at least an idea of what was written on it.

"Really aru? Let me see?" China moved over next to Russia to read the note, " Let's see. it's giving us a list of our names aru!" He began listing them instantly.

"On this side we have, Anaise Kirkland aru," This was Wy; she looked about 13-14 if you were to guess her age. She had brown hair that was kept up, making it hard to tell just how long her hair was. The ponytail was held up by a red flower, and went strongly to one side and her hair formed many ringlets in it. She had thicker eyebrows although not as thick as Sealand or England. But enough to show her distant lineage to the Kirkland family. She had light brown eyes and wore a pink coat over a white tank top and khakis.

"Marcello Vargas," He was known as Seborga. And was a third sibling of the Italy's. It's hard to judge his physical age but he appeared to be older than Wy. He had the classic Vargas curl on his left side. what made his different is that it looked more square like instead of the nice round curls of North and South Italy. His hair was redder than either of them and was also slightly longer. He had green eyes, and wore a light green polo shirt.

"Leopold Edelstein," Was also known as KugelMugel. He had two long white ponytails that reached just passed his hips. As well as a mariazelle to the left his face reflecting his Austrian lineage. His eyes were were a light purple, and he wore a red cap on his head. He also wore a white and purple striped button down shirt, and a white vest.

"Peter Kirkland," The blonde haired kid was known as Sealand, currently a british port. His hair was short, kept about the same length as his bangs which just touched his eyebrows. He had blue eyes, and his eyebrows were almost as bushy as England's. He wore a blue sailor suit, and a round blue and white hat.

"Niklas Oxenstierna," This was Ladonia. He had short bright orange hair, and blue eyes. the scar below his eye was just a thin line that might closely resemble paint. He wore a white jacket with black cuffs and a black collar. A large loosely tied blue bow was placed where traditionally a tie would be. Although it looked a bit different than a bow tie.

"This is Ivan Bravinski," He gestured to Russia. And then to Himself, "And I'm Yao Wang."

(The Note)

America

America turned the page as he was about to start reading the the actual 'note' part of it, " So here's where the note actually begins. It says:

Lithuania

"'By now I'm sure many of you are confused and probably scared of what's going on. But I assure you everything will be fine in the end. Please keep that in mind. To explain myself a little I will tell you that you are all trapped within a maze. A labyrinth if you will. Although some of you already know this. There is of course an exit and once you are out your head should clear, and that amnesia you seem to have will go away. "

Romano

"But that's not all of course. Life is never that simple. In here with you are a number of people who will prevent you from leaving and if they can from even finding the exit. These people know exactly what's going on here, and will pretend to be just like you. You may even see them as your friend, but don't be fooled, they aren't. They are here to make your lives hell. "

China

"To defend yourselves there are several weapons at your disposal. and because this may take a while there is enough food to last you a week. Don't worry though everything you need will be provided. "

America

"One last thing You can tell apart these 'Traitors' by a large black spot on their back.'"


	3. Chapter 3

Finished! Loonngg chapter guys! 25 pages on my google docs! XD so I added this to the last chapter a few days ago but I'll add it here too in case you didn't see it. I am going to be uploading chapters every two weeks instead of every week. Because well I never make that deadline! and now I have school, so that has to take precedence. -_-' so enjoy the chapter! see you guys in two weeks? Hopefully sooner if I get some more time to write!

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oh and I made a map of the maze on DA le link~ art/HetaCrusade-2-The-Countries-Labyrinth-Map-1-39 9021730?ga_submit_new=10%253A1378676430

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America gripped the paper. He couldn't stop rereading it. What? He couldn't understand what he was reading. Alice had betrayed their trust? It was obvious the note had referred to them. Who else could it have meant?! He guessed he should have expected as much from Alice.

"Trapped," Finland uttered quietly.

"And we're all being targeted huh?" Romania pointed out.

"It could be any one of us," Seychelles said.

"You guys! This is freaking scary!" Denmark yelled.

"Well there's only one way to know know for sure," Norway assured them.

Even though they weren't, America felt as if all eyes were on him.

"Come on guys. It can't be any of us right? I mean... really. It just can't be. They're probably hiding in the halls or something," America tried to reason with them.

"Alright. Everyone line up against the wall," Norway instructed," I'll show you guys my back first and then we'll go down the line and take turns. He turned around and took off his shirt, revealing a blemish free back, "Satisfied?" He asked.

"Yeah," America answered.

Then Sweden went. And Finland. And Iceland. And Denmark. Every moment of it all America could think was 'oh god. I'm probably next!' It was the longest five minutes of his life.

When he finally did get called his heart jumped. He knew he couldn't just talk his way out of this. He just had to go up there and show them. There were too many of them to convince them that they just had to trust him. He tried not to seem hesitant as he went up there in front of everyone. He tugged at the bottom of his shirt pulling it up over his head.

No one said anything. After a minute or two he put his shirt back on and went back in line. So there wasn't a spot on his back. That relieved him quite a bit. It made a bit more sense too. He wondered how Alice would have managed to get a spot on his back without him knowing. But it made him a little wary that... something else might be lurking in these tunnels.

Romania went next. And after that they reached a small dilemma. Seychelles was a girl. They couldn't exactly ask her to take her shirt off. But they also needed to know. Well, america didn't. He trusted all of them. He had no reason not to. He understood what was happening. But the others weren't that quick to trust.

"Yo-you don't have to. If you don't want to," America placed a hand on Seychelles's shoulder, and looked away hiding his embarrassment.

"Well we can't just 'trust her because she's a girl!'" Romania argued, "Everyone so far has passed but that means she's even more likely to be one!"

"It's fine. Really," Seychelles smiled innocently, "my dress zips from the back so I can just unzip it that far and you'd see my back."

Once that crisis was averted their attention had moved once more.

"So if none of us are traitors. Then who is it?" Norway asked.

"My guess is that it's more people in the tunnels. I saw some of it earlier while the rest of you were asleep. This place is huge!" America answered him.

Denmark was admiring the ax amongst the weapons in the corner, "What a about these wicked weapons?! Guys!?"

"I guess we probably should divide this stuff up. Food and stuff like that can stay here so we can find it again, and share it at regular meals," America decided, "As for weapons. Everyone pick one you are most comfortable using."

That last part was maybe a mistake on his part. Not the letting them have weapons part. It'd be waayy too suspicious if he tried to keep them from taking arms. But maybe he should have just given them each a particular weapon. Cause now they were arguing over who had what as a weapon.

It took America approximately twenty minutes to get them to settle down. And another ten after that just to get sorted who had what weapon!

Finally after the half hour of arguing they had it sorted. Finland had a switchblade to be used more for self-defense then in offense. But it would keep him relatively safe then. Sweden brandished a heavy broadsword that's style ironically matched the ones of the viking days. Denmark had been where most of the arguing was coming from. Although in the end he did end up with that ax. Everything was mostly worried he had no idea how to use it properly. Then Norway also had a viking broadsword. Although his was made from lighter material and had a sleeker look to it. Iceland then had a bow and close to fifty arrows. If used properly the bow would fly further than most bullets. And would be fairly silent. Then as for Romania he really drew the short end of the stick. He carried with him, a silver dagger. He felt rather unsure of what weapon would suit him, as he didn't recall having any experience with them. So he picked out the dagger as it was the first weapon he grabbed in defense when America walked in.

America was much more confident with his. Alice had provided him with a nice handgun this time. He wouldn't say a handgun was his favorite type of gun, but he didn't plan on firing it. and it did just fine for self defense. Seychelles was also left with a handgun.

"Are you sure you can handle that?" America asked wondering if there wasn't a better weapon she could use. One more suited for a young girl, "I mean to you know how to shoot it?"

Seychelles smirked her chocolate eyes gleaming, "I can handle it just fine. Thank you very much."

America laughed, "Power to ya sister!"

"So Alfred you've actually been outside this room," Romania posed the question, "what exactly should we expect?"

"Well I didn't make all that far but, there's huge masses of hallways/tunnels. It would be impossible for one person to cover all of it. And I did find a map. It's kind of hard to understand though. nothing really seems to line up. And the entrance and exits aren't labeled or even clear."

"Well that was helpful," Iceland scoffed, annoyed that they weren't getting anywhere fast.

"but it did label rooms. We're in room four... I think. The map was confusing. But there's another three rooms on the map as well. I don't think we're the only ones trapped in here."

"Really? Do you think the others could be the 'traitors' mentioned in the note?" Seychelles asked.

"I don't think so, but they might think we are. I'd be on guard just in case, " America reasoned. He didn't want them to be unarmed if someone tried to attack them. He didn't know how well the others had done to calm the hostility of their group, so he was a bit wary of his group running into them.

"Alright! let's try and see if we can't find this exit!" America shouted leading the group down out the door. Romania cringed as it got brighter. At least it wasn't too much of a jump from the way it'd been inside. He soon adjusted, although rather grudgingly.

America talked them through it, as they made their way down the long hall, "So there's a long stretch here that's just a straight path, but in a minute it will open up into about four paths."

"How far did you get exactly?" Norway asked.

He hesitated, "I saw how complex these tunnels get and decided to wait for everyone before exploring it too much," they walked into the section that split into four directions each on a different wall, "so down quite a ways from the left tunnel there's that map. That's about all I know."

"I think we should split up here," Norway said, level headedly.

"I agree," Romania said, "we'll cover more ground this way."

"Well then. I'll take the path that goes up from the left tunnel. Everyone else?" America asked.

"I'll take the lower path," Sweden spoke in a deep monotone voice.

"Umm, I guess I'll go with Berwald then," Finland said nervously unsure of what to do.

"I'd like to see what's down that way. Since we're doing groups of two it seems. Mind if I tag along with you Alfred?" Romania asked.

oh god! He'd be traveling alone with the vampire! The thought somewhat terrified him. But if not him then who? He was going to be the hero of this story, therefore he needed to be the one taking all the risks. It was better this way, " Yeah you can tag along. That's fine."

"Me and Emil, will go down the hall to the right," Norway gestured to Iceland.

"Who said I wou-" Iceland tried to rebuttal but gave up when Denmark joined in.

"Then I'm going with you two!" He yelled obnoxiously loud.

"Isn't there someone else you're more suited to go with?" Norway complained.

"Well actually we're only left with Michelle to take the middle path," America pointed out.

"Don't worry I'll be fine!" Seychelles smiled warmly making sure everyone else was happy first.

"Are you sure?" America asked worriedly, "One of us could go with you."

"No really. I'll be fine we're just checking out the tunnels. Wait, so how will we know when to meet back here?" She asked.

"Good question. Since we don't know what time it is. Let's meet back when either your tunnels get too difficult and you're worried about finding your way back. Or when you find a series of paths leading you too far in. If you head back, at least try to call everyone first."

"Sounds good to me," Iceland said.

"Same here," Iceland agreed.

"See you guys in a little while. Good luck!" America said before turning to Romania, "Let's go."

(Mona)

The countries reading the note suddenly went white. Weird wasn't that? Well maybe not too weird. They were all a bit startled. This kind of thing only happened in movies right? Being trapped in an inescapable labyrinth. And then there was this issue of 'traitors' it made everyone wary of one another.

"So I believe our first issue is finding out who these 'traitors' are. Before that we can't trust anyone," Mona said.

"She's right. We need to find this 'traitor' before things get out of hand," Im-Yong agreed.

"I'm suspecting it's one of them," Hyung glared at the three who were up first suspiciously, "Anyone else find it strange that they were all awake before us?"

"It is a bit strange," Im-Yong agreed.

"And they were talking just before I woke up."

"I-It's not like that! We were just too scared to wake anyone up!" Toris tried to explain.

"Then why don't you prove it?" Felix asked, "Just take off your shirts and let us see your backs?"

"Yes! Then we'd know for sure. No guessing or arguing to it," Im-Yong said confidently.

The three of them looked cornered, and then pulled each other into a mini conference.

"Well we can't keep denying them. If we do they'll be even more suspicious!" Hungary argued.

"But what if there are spots on our backs? What do we do then?" Lithuania reasoned.

"Look we're all scared but if we don't then they won't trust anyone. Do you know what that's like? I remember. Back when this was happening to us, I spent the entire time unable to trust anyone," Hungary shook her head, "We can't let that happen to them."

Prussia felt a little guilty. He remembered that day all too well. He'd been a part of what caused her to lose her trust. Although not completely him. most of that could be put on Russia or Taiwan. Still, he wondered why she didn't seem to hate him right now.

"But They might turn on us!" Lithuania worried.

"Look this isn't about us. We're here to help them. If that means we're put into the firing range first so be it."

"Are you about done?" Hyung asked. The entire fact that they went into a mini conference was enough to give him grounds for distrust. They had something to hide. And he knew it.

"Just give us another minute," Elizaveta begged.

"Screw this!" Gilbert said walking away from the group, "I got nothing to hide. I am ze Awesome... Gilbert!" He hesitated readjusting to his name. He then proceeded to take off his shirt.

"Gilbert hold on a second!" Elizaveta tried to stop him.

But it was too late. Gilbert took of his blue coat and shirt, flinging them to the side. He turned around and revealed his blemish free back, "Kesesese! See, as I said."

"Well that's a relief. Now we at least know one person we can trust," Mona let out a sigh.

Hyung was more upset than he was relieved, "Then what is it that you're hiding. You wouldn't have held such a meeting if there wasn't something."

"We're not hiding anything! We were just scared. I mean what if one of us had a birthmark we didn't know about?" Elizaveta reasonably explained.

"Then let's see the rest of your backs?" Hyung asked.

"We should ask the same of you. I think everyone wants to see everyone's back," Elizaveta countered.

"Fine with me," Hyung agreed. For the next fifteen minutes there was a room full of chaotic shirtless people, all of them without a spot on their backs.

"Ok! can we all put our shirts back on now!?" Mona screamed feeling exposed in just her bra in a room filled with boys.

No one argued. "Thank god! That was a nightmare," Mona shook her head pulling her pink satin blouse on over glasses.

"Well now that everyone's satisfied that none of us are traitors-" Elizaveta began.

"But Isn't that a bit weird?" Hyung brought up, "I mean the note said there were traitors amongst us."

"Well I guess it lied. It was probably trying to distract us from finding the exit," Elizaveta tried to assure him.

Somehow Hyung didn't think so. So far the note had all the answers. It knew what was going on. It was the one real truth in this world.

"So to make up time we'll have to move quickly. Everyone grab a weapon you feel comfortable using and we'll start searching this maze," Eliza said.

There was of course some arguing over who had what. But some of it was settled quite quickly. Gilbert had the broadsword with the same cross, as the pendant he wore around his neck, on it's hilt, and then Elizaveta took the frying pan, not that anyone seemed to mind. Or realise just how violent a weapon it was.

Hyung soo, chose a 9-ring broadsword from the mix. Although it resembled more of a machette with razor like rings, then it did a broadsword. First of all it was closer in size to a machette, and had a curvature to it that was uniquely it's own. Ending in a curving point.

im-yong soo, also had a sword. Although his was a tai chi sword. It was thin like a katana, but it was straight and had a hilt that resembled more of a broadsword. It's light weight suited him well. It guided him to make more precise blows, and he felt as if he flowed with it.

Feliks, had picked out a sniper rifle. Not sure when he'd be able to use it all that well, considering where they were, but he seemed to like it.

Toris and Mona on the other hand had more sensible weapons. Toris held in his hands a revolver, and Mona held in other hands a pistol.

"You guys ready?" Elizaveta asked warning them for a final time before they opened the door.

"Come on! Ze awesome that is me shall lead the way!" Gilbert yelled out his battle cry before charging outside and heading in some random direction.

"Gilbert! Get back here!" Eliza called after him although he showed no signs of slowing, "Agh. I'm gonna have to go after him before he gets himself into trouble. We'll split up here. Just try and be safe. Alright?"

And then she was gone. Running down the hallway to chase after Gilbert. They turned down the the first left. That left Felix, Toris, Im-Yong, Hyung, and Mona to decide their paths.

Felix quickly grabbed Toris pulling him further down the path, "Come on! we should like totally go searching this place!"

"Wh-Why me?!" Toris asked. He was just trying to think of a good excuse himself. The two of the were friends so he'd wanted to keep a close watch on him.

When they were a good distance away from the others he answered, "I just thought you looked like the most likely to do what I say."

That left Hyung, Im-Yong, and Mona. "Well I'm going to see if I can't find Elizaveta. She seemed pretty level headed, and I'd like to have someone like that to watch my back," She turned down the path Eliza had taken and quickly ran after after her.

"So I guess It's just us?" Im-Yong offered trying to be nice. He didn't want to go alone considering he could get lost very easily, but he also didn't exactly want to go with Hyung. He seemed to distant... and serious.

"Just don't slow me down," Hyung agreed, picking up the note that had carelessly thrown to the ground, and putting it in his pocket. He wanted to hold onto the slim amount of truth and answers he'd been given. he believed that If he followed as the note said then the exit would reveal itself, and he could get out. Maybe he'd save the others as well.

The two of them also took the first left turn but instead of taken the lower path when it split the took the higher one.

(Anri)

"Trapped?!" this couldn't be happening. Not to her. Not now. Why? why did she have to go through this? what had she done? she couldn't even remember anything.

"So who are these traitors?" Abel asked serious as ever. He didn't even look scared. How could he not be Anri wondered. Could he be one of those traitor?! the thought ran away with her for a moment. No. He couldn't be. None of them could be right? They'd all seemed so nice. And they were all trying to figure things out. One of these traitors wouldn't be like that right?

"We don't know. We can't know really. There might not even be any 'traitors' to begin with. No one said the information on this Note was true," Arthur said somewhat nervously.

"We could know actually. There is a spot on the back of the traitors. all we'd have to do is look," Allistor mentioned.

"There is a lady Present," Arthur scolded him.

"Besides. They are probably just trust trying to plot us together," Antonio reminded them.

"So you suggest we just pretend we didn't hear that? Are you one of them?!" Anri asked.

"No. We aren't traitors. No one in this room is a traitor. I believe that wholeheartedly. I believe we all want to get out of here, and are willing to do whatever it will take to make that happen. And I don't think any of you would try and hinder that. Therefore I trust all of you. I believe we will need to trust each other to get out of here. Can you do that?" Francis asked of them giving his best speach.

There was silence in the room. England had never heard France speak with such sincerity before. And he had known him for centuries. The entire room was in a state of shock as well. He had somehow managed to quell the doubt that had rested in them. It was a bit inspiring.

"Now. we should start, exploring these tunnels. Right? We need to find this exit," France took on a more serious aspect, "We should form two scouting groups to start with, as there are two doors, and we'll split up when necessary.

"But. What about the weapons?" Ireland asked looking to the corner where they lay waiting.

"We shouldn't come across anything we can't defend ourselves from, and we'll stay in large groups. We won't need them. If anything they would put us in more danger. Because no one is likely to attack someone who is unarmed," Spain said.

"I don't know. I mean just to be safe..." Ireland pushed.

"Just shut up so we can get out of here already!" Romano complained still sulking in the back of the room.

"Lovi!" Spain scolded him.

"No. He's right. We should be focused on trying to get out of here not worrying about running into a threat. If there is one, we'all deal with it then," The Netherlands agreed.

"Exactly. Now we have two doors so two groups. I'd like to see where this door leads to, so whoever wants to come can as well. Antonio? Weren't you thinking of taking the other way?" France asked Spain if he was taking the door they came through back through the maze. They had talked earlier, and Spain had mentioned wanting to check out a few things back that way.

"Si. I did," Spain answered.

"Then you have the option of traveling with either of us. Let's try and keep it about even though alright?"

After some pacing talking Belgium and the Netherlands and of course Romano joined Spain's group. So then of course Scotland and Ireland went to join France's group to keep things even. Putting England in a sticky situation. "Ah bloody hell! Why do I always seem to get stuck with you!" England complained. He had to ho with that group. There really wasn't a choice in the matter. Splitting the group up 5/3 didn't make sense, and he needed to watch his brothers.

"Honhonhonhon," France laughed acting a little less serious and a bit more like himself, "oh, Mon cher. You would have come anyways."

"Bloody frog!" England muttered under his breath as the door closed behind them and they began their descent through the tunnels.

(Anaise)

"What do you mean trapped?!" Peter said jumping to his feet so fast his sailor hat fell to the floor.

"Never mind that! What about these traitors?!" Anaise inquired seriously, "How are we supposed to feel safe!?"

"Don't believe it aru. I look at each of us and we're all terrified. None of could be a traitor aru," Yao tried to calm the rising fear amongst them.

"But it said they could act like that. They could just be pretending. Waiting for an opertune moment to take us down," Anaise rebuttled.

"You believe us. Or I'll make you believe us, da?" Ivan smiled intimidatingly at them. Well one step forward two steps backward he supposed.

"Ivan! Aiyaa! That is not how you get people to listen to you aru!"

The suspicion was rising higher by the second. Ladonia knew he had to say something now or things could get ugly. Of course he already knew there was no spot on their backs so things would be fine if they came to that, but he didn't want it to get there.

"I agree with them. Most likely the note is trying to pit us against one another to slow us down. If we're always on edge and fighting it will take us longer to find the exit."

They seemed to have relaxed more after this. "That's a relief then. We don't have to worry!" Seborga said relaxing on his back with his arms stretched out.

"It's art you know," kugelmugel told Ladonia.

"What is?" Ladonia answered.

"What we're doing. Going against what we're told. It's art!"

"Ha! I suppose it is," Ladonia agreed with him.

China and Russia went to the back corner of the room and retrieved their weapons while the others were conversing. China grabbing his dual kung fu swords, and Russia retrieving his pipe.

"The two of us are going to go scout the area aru. The rest of you should stay here and be safe. This is not a place for children aru," China announced moving out of the room.

"Hey wait a minute! We want to look for the exit too!" Sealand exclaimed.

"Don't call us children! We can handle ourselves just fine!" Wy complained.

"You'll do as Yao says. Or I'll deliver you punishment personally, da?" Russia warned them to stay put, once China was out of earshot.

Well that would keep them busy for a while. He wondered just how long it would be before they decided to risk sneaking out. A cruel thought popped into his head. Of how much fun it would be to torture them for disobeying.

He quickly pushed the thought from his mind. If China knew what he was thinking he'd hate him for sure. It was this atmosphere. He was like this during waring eras as well. Something about the mistrust and violence lingering in the air made something click in him that he was incapable of controlling.

He quickly caught up with China as they turned the corner. The were heading north through the maze. They assumed since the entrance was over here, the exit would of course be on the other side, "I'll take the lead Yao! I'm going to see if there's anything important up ahead."

"Okay aru," China agreed, mostly because he knew he'd never be able to match Russia's pace.

As they turned the next corner Russia was already fairly far ahead of him. China was about to follow him, but came across another map, stalling him for another eight minutes as he decided the most likely places an exit would be. As well as how to get to each of them.

(Lithuania)

Poland and Lithuania walked in awkward silence for awhile. If it wasn't for Poland's pestering it really would have been silence, "Your not much of one for conversation are ya?" He asked.

"S-Sorry. I just don't have much to say,"

Lithuania answered trying to think of how he could say things so that Poland wouldn't get suspicious or so he wouldn't reveal himself, "Ah! Look a map! Maybe this one will be more helpful!"

"This one? Did you see another map or something earlier?" Poland asked.

Lithuania froze as his own words echoed in his head. He thought he'd been so careful too! He stuttered trying to think of how to answer, "U-U-Umm. N-No. Wait! I-I-I mean y-yes!" Lithuania barely managed to get out, "It was back at the first turn I saw it as we passed it. Y-Yeah. That's it."

Lucky for him, Poland was already distracted. His short attention span hadn't lasted long enough to hear Lithuania's explanation, "When are we going to do something fun! It's like so totally boring here!" Poland complained.

"Let's just keep looking. Um. Here," Lithuania pointed to the next turn on the map, "It looks like if we take us to an area with a lot of 'dead ends', any of them could easily be the exit." He looked up but Poland was already turning the corner. Lithuania ran after him.

"Poland wait up!" Lithuania yelled after him, struggling to catch his breath as he turned the corner a second time, this time left.

"What?!" Poland asked confused, something in the back of his mind prickling for recognition.

The realization of what he'd mistakenly called out suddenly hit him. He froze his eyes widening at this sudden realization. Damn! How could he have been so careless!? He quickly tried to figure out something to say, but he was drawing a blank, "I-I-I m-meant Felix. Haha you know the two sound so simaler."

Poland didn't buy it this time, "Three. This is the third time you've said something and have tried to pretend you didn't."

Lithuania was silent. How could he have let this happen?!

"What are you hiding?" Poland asked, staring him down.

"N-Nothing I swear!" Lithuania tried to deny it. Poland's glare bore into him, making him feel guilty. He was forced to look away.

"Then why do you look so guilty?! What did you mean when you called me Poland? And what about just a moment ago when you said you'd seen another map?!" Poland was determined to get answers from him.

"I-I can't tell you," Lithuania said the only explanation he could give.

"What do you mean you can't tell me!?" Poland was rather infuriated by Lithuania's secrecy, "You're not one of the traitors are you?"

"No! I'm not a traitor! I wouldn't betray anyone!" Lithuania answered immediately.

"Then what are you hiding?! It's you and the other two. The three of you are hiding something aren't you!?" Poland was starting to figure them out. That wasn't good. Poland wasn't very good at solving puzzles like this. And if he was already figuring them out... he wondered how the other groups were managing.

(Russia)

Russia had gone all the way down to the next turn before he realized China wasn't following him anymore. He must gotten left behind. He considered heading back for him... but then he heard voices. They were just the end of this next turn.

He couldn't place them yet as they were still pretty far away. 'Who were they?' He wondered. Well, he was about to find out. What might happen next played over and over in his head. Each time different. Depending on who they were and how they reacted to seeing him. Each time it played over it got progressively more violent. From starting to search for an exit together, to an all out bloodbath. He wondered which outcome would surface.

As he got closer the voices became clearer. He couldn't place them yet. But he could tell they were arguing about something. As he got closer the voices became clearer.

"Please believe me! I just can't tell you!" The first voice begged. Russia pretty easily placed it as Lithuania's.

The second voice was a little harder and took him a minute to place, but he did figure it out. "Why! What are you keeping from me?!" Poland yelled back.

So Poland and Lithuania were fighting? That was a strange sight. And as he listened it sounded like Lithuania had given them away. That wasn't good. Alice wasn't going to like that very much.

"If I tell you. Then I won't be able to help! Please understand," Lithuania begged for Poland to drop the topic.

"Aww, Toris you're gonna give us away!" Russia complained stepping around the corner.

Lithuania's eyes went wide with fear almost by instinct as Russia came around the corner and approached them.

Poland spun around to face their newcomer. He aimed his gun at him, "Not another step. Who are you. And how do you know Toris?!" He demanded.

"R-Ivan," Lithuania whispered under his breath. He had hoped he wouldn't run into him at all here. But fate had a funny way of pinning them... at the worst possible moments.

Poland looked back at Lithuania, "You know him?! What aren't you telling me! Fess up already!"

"Better not. We need to keep it a secret. Da?" Russia asked, "How much does he know Toris?"

"Nothing! I didn't say anything!" Lithuania tried to reason with Russia. Damn he could be scary when he wanted to be.

"He called me Poland! What did he mean by that?!" Poland asked Russia trying to get answers from anyone he could.

"Your lying to me Toris? We can't have that," Russia took a step closer.

Memories from his days in the soviet union resurfaced. Lithuania shuddered at the thought. He didn't want to remember them right now. They were supposed to be on the same side this time!

"Don't move or I'll shoot!" Poland warned. It also scared Lithuania to see Poland be this serious. Poland was never serious. And never took stuff like this seriously. It must be something about this place that changed them. No one acted like themselves. At least not how he knew them.

"Oh? So you think you can take me, da?" Russia asked itching for a fight he knew better than to start.

"Felix. Listen to me. He's way to dangerous. He'll kill you!" Lithuania begged Poland not to pick a fight with Russia.

"Please. I could like totally take him with one arm tied behind my back," Poland bragged.

Russia grinned quietly laughing to himself, "kolkolkolkol," as he stepped forward.

Poland aimed his gun as if to fire. Lithuania jumped between the two, "Stop! If you don't shoot. I-I'll tell you."

Russia waited until he was sure Lithuania was really selling them out. If he acted to soon then the fight was his fault. At least that's how he rationalized it.

"Then tell me," Poland released the grip on his gun slightly.

"We've been in your shoes before. Except this time we can re-" the pipe came crashing through Lithuania. It happened to fast for either of them to see it coming or to evade it.

In the moment the pipe would have made contact with Lithuania's back he began to fade. And then just disappeared entirely.

Russia's figure came into view once Lithuania had vanished. The momentum from the pipe carrying its way down onto Poland. Russia could feel the moment it made contact the Poland. It hit Poland directly in the stomach whereas it would have pierced Lithuania's back.

Blood welled up around Poland's abdomen. As Poland screamed in fright and pain. Russia smiled at the sight he'd caused. He could have stopped there. The injury wasn't too critical. He could just get some first aid treatment for it and Poland would be just fine. But truthfully he didn't want to. The thought of killing him was much to tempting. He pulled out his pipe from Poland's stomach and proceeded to hit him with it again and again. As the walls splattered with blood. He relished in every agonized scream and whimper Poland gave out. Until finally he stopped breathing altogether.

That's when Russia finally stopped, dropping his pipe and looking around him. He was still shivering with the thrill of it. He let out to breaths shaky with laughter. He'd just killed someone he realized. If anyone saw him right now... he picked up his pipe and ran. He wasn't sure where he was going. Maybe he'd find a good place to hide and wait for this to all be over. Or maybe he'd run into someone else... he was scared to think of what he'd do if that happened.


	4. Chapter 4

XD so OMG! you guys. What are the odds that right after I said I would take two weeks. I get it done in 1?! Although I'd still say expect them biweekly. But Hey you never know! XD Anyways. Here you go~ :)

* * *

(Alice)

"-member things. and-" Lithuania Suddenly appeared in the room next to me. I quickly switched cameras. He really didn't need to see what had happened afterward.

"What happened to the maze?! Where did- What am I doing here?!" He asked noticing my presence.

"I warned you before you entered that If you tried to tell anyone what was going on I would pull you out without hesitation," I spoke firmly.

"But. You have to send me back! Russia! He's.. He was going to kill Poland! I could see it in his eyes!" Lithuania begged.

I looked away unable to face him, "I can't. If I sent you back now. It would just add to the suspicions. I should have pulled you out sooner but I was still hoping you could figure out someway to explain yourself without revealing everything."

"Please! I have to stop this!" Lithuania continued to beg.

"I can't! ... Besides. It's too late now. The fight is already over," I said regrettably. I didn't want to tell him. But he deserved to know.

Lithuania collapsed to the floor, "No, It can't be."

"I'm sorry Lithuania. But you have to let them make their own decisions. By the end of this it will all be okay though. I promise you that," I told him the only consolation I could give him.

"But what about Russia? Why don't you zap him out before he can kill anyone else?" Lithuania questioned me.

"Well first of all he technically hasn't broken any of my rules. Although this really wasn't my intention. But most importantly If I take him out now. There will be no one left to bring Poland back," I told him, "And it is very important that we get him back. Isn't it."

Lithuania continued to look distraught, "Look there's a spare room down the hall. why don't you rest. I have a feeling this will all be over in less than a week. And if they're as fast as the rest of you, maybe much sooner."

(China)

Alright. So there were at least a few places they could check in the direction Russia had headed. Although he would really like to check the northeast corner. There wasn't a group over there which seemed a bit suspicious to him.

He looked back at the path. How long had he been standing there?! He couldn't see or hear Russia. How far ahead had he gotten?! He ran down hall he had first seen Russia disappear down. At the end of it he turned right. Russia was still nowhere in sight.

He was starting to worry he'd lost him when he turned down the next path. He instantly noticed something wrong. There was red on the far wall. That was his first impression. His second was worse and was met with realization and the cold truth. It wasn't just red on the wall. It was blood.

China slowed he almost wanted to turn around and not see any of this. But he couldn't. He knew he couldn't. He had to know. He turned the corner.

He stifled a scream as he saw the violence before him. He had to close his eyes for a moment to deal with it. He would have sunk to his knees, but it made him uncomfortable. There was too much blood. It was splattered along the floors and the walls. The air made him want to gag. It was thick with the scent of iron.

And that wasn't the worst of it. The nation that lay there was almost unrecognizable. His face had been bashed in, as well as his arms broken and in stomach had been stabbed through. Still, he was able to recognize the nation as Poland. He started to wonder who could have done this?

But then he knew. It was clear if you'd played attention. He knew from the violence and the only weapon that could have caused this. That it was Russia. He honestly didn't want to believe it. He knew Russia could get violent. The last few days for them had been proof enough. But he thought Russia had better control than this! What could have caused him to be pushed over the edge again like this!?

He had to go after him. He had to stop him at all costs. If not for the other nations. Then for Russia himself. He needed to be kept in control more.

He just hoped he wasn't too late to stop this from happening again. There was a thin trail of blood outlining his footprints. And droplets every ten feet or so. He hoped he would catch up with Russia before the trail faded, and the blood dried up. If that were to happen finding him would be a shot in the dark.

(Ladonia)

"How long do you think they've been gone?" Wy asked peeking out the door.

"Like five hours!" Sealand whined laying on his back staring at the ceiling.

"I think it's safe if we stepped out," she said testing her theory by taking a step out the door.

"Are you crazy?! What about that Ivan guy?" Sealand asked her.

"I thought you wanted to go 'exploring'?" She teased him.

"I-I do," Sealand hesitated.

"Then let's go now. Before they get back!" Wy encouraged him.

"Why go and cause trouble when we can just stay here?" Seborga asked. He was just fine with laying back and relaxing through the day.

"No she's right. We should go now while we can, " Ladonia butted in. He could see everything from the security cameras in his head. There was no one in the area. and china and russia were... a bit tied up at the moment. Besides. Due to recent events he now needed to report to Alice, and he couldn't do that here while everyone was watching, "Besides. If we want to get out of here it's up to us right?"

"Come on guys! let's hurry!" Wy begged. Somewhat reluctantly everyone got up and left together.

Once they were outside the door they headed straight, as that was the only way they could go. During this time they had broken into groups of twos. Except for Ladonia who had somehow convinced them to let him go off on his own.

At the end of the hall they had three directions they could go, it was here that their talk became real. They stopped to discuss a few things first. "So who goes what way?" Wy asked.

"I'll take the path on the right," Ladonia answered quickly. That path was the most likely to lead somewhere that they could get themselves in trouble. But If Ladonia went he could be sure to avoid them.

Wy nodded, "Then we'll take this way," she pointed to the path to the left.

"Noo! I want to go down this path! come on Anaise! please!" Sealand complained, trying to drag her down the path continued straight.

"Fine," She gave in, "Then we'll take this path."

"Then we'll take this path!~" Seborga announced.

"Yeah we know," Sealand said, "It's the only path left."

"Ok guys. We don't want to get caught so just to the end of your path ok?" Ladonia clarified. He didn't want to have to go after them later when they got lost.

"That makes sense," Wy agreed, "See you all soon."

And with that they all split into their own groups. Ladonia laughed to himself as he walked away, after seeing what way KugelMugel and Seborga had went. They were all heading down dead ends! Ladonia turned right, as he got to the main path. The entrance was of course still sealed, but that didn't matter. He closed his eyes and his image vanished. When he reopened them he was in Alice's office.

(Alice)

I smiled seeing Ladonia appear in my office, 'Why hello ladonia. Tell me how are things looking on your side?"

He shrugged, "Not much has happened. Well, Russia killed Poland, but you know that already. And I'm guessing you took lithuania out?"

"Yes I did. He was about to give away the entire experiment," I answered.

"Where is he now?" Ladonia asked warily.

"Sleeping," I answered him, "But I don't know how soundly so we'll need to be rather quick."

Ladonia carried on, "So then of course China's chasing after Russia. Other than that it's just a lot of mistrust and fear."

"Anyone you think I should keep a more particular eye on?" I asked.

"Definetly North Korea. He's suspicious of everything right now. I'm not sure what he might do next."

(Michelle)

Michelle walked swiftly down her path, her blue dress swaying with her strides, and braids swinging back and forth. Maybe she shouldn't be, but right now she was happy. They might be trapped in some huge maze, but right now everything was working out okay. Her group members worked as more of a team and there was trust. And if anything did try attack her, well she had a gun. She felt safe.

She turned right, her first real turn since she started. This path was shorter, but she decided she would head back to the room after checking it out. Unless of course she found something first.

Hyung Soo continued to travel up, whereas the others had travel south. They hadn't been traveling for very long before they'd made their first turn, heading left instead of right. Im-yong followed at least ten feet behind hung. Trying to pretend he wasn't there. If he could have gone with anyone else he would have. But somehow they'd ended up together. He couldn't deny it was odd though. Their names and their clothes were similar. They even had the same last name. He entertained the idea that they might be related. But then he wondered, why then, would Hyung scare him so much?

They turned left again heading further north. Hyung stopped dead in his tracks and stared, and soon Im-yong did the same as he could suddenly see why. In front of them starring with the same shock was a young girl in pigtails.

Hyung froze stiff. He hadn't been expecting to run into anyone this soon. Although he had been expecting it. This must be one of the traitors the note mentioned. He gripped tighter around the hilt of his sword where he had tied the note around it. 'Remember,' he told himself, 'no matter what they say they are traitors. They are perfect liars and will do anything for you to believe them. Don't trust a word she says'.

"Who are you. And what do you want!" Hyung yelled trying to see if she would crack.

The girls eyes were wide with fear and she continued to stare at them speechless for a moment. "I-I'm Michelle," she finally stuttered out, "I was just trying to find the exit. L-Like the rest of my group. Who are you!" She asked.

"We don't have to answer that," Hyung scoffed.

"I'm Im-Yong Soo," Im-Yong answered her, "Don't mind him. He's just... Not quick to get used to people," Im-Yong shot Hung a look which meant he didn't approve of how cold he was toward her.

Hyung was just as unhappy with Im-Yong. He took him aside and spoke to him so Michelle couldn't here, "Don't tell her your name! Are you crazy?! She's one of those traitors! She might be able to kill you just because you mistakenly said your name aloud."

Im-Yong looked to the still shaky girl who was nervously watching them, "Are you sure she's a traitor? I mean she looks like a normal girl to me."

Hyung looked at him seriously, "Don't you remember what the note said? She's faking it. And yes, of course I'm sure she's one of them!"

Michelle had started to retreat slowly back down the path she'd come from. Walking backward. Not taking her eyes off them.

Hyung saw her from his peripheral vision and turned around quickly chasing after her, "You won't get away that easily!"

It took her two or three paces to turn around start running. He would soon catch up to her. She was already crying before he did though. She was terrified of what he might do to her. She just wanted to get back to the safety of her group. Back to a safety of numbers.

She hadn't even made it as far as the turn before he caught up to her. His arms wrapped around her waist to catch her. And then. Without warning his right arm disappeared and came back with the blade. It cut through the side of her lovely blue dress, shredding it. And it pressed hard and quickly into her side. She screamed in agony and shock as she felt the razor-like blades rip into her skin. Each ring of the 9-ring broadsword cut into her separately and at different angles. And the blade had sunk in enough that there was a gash where they main blade had also ripped it's way into her. She couldn't even register all that pain at once.

The shock caused her to jerk away. Which was a terrible idea. Doing so ripped the blade back out. Reopening wounds that were trying to heal and opening new ones as well. It hurt far worse the second time. She was doubled over in pain, and her vision was getting blurry.

"Hyung! What the hell?! Don't kill her!" She heard Im-Yongs panicked screams.

She cried heavily trying to ignore the all consuming pain in her side. All the while her eyes getting foggier with tears, "P-Please! Don't hurt me!" She begged for her life in the only way she could.

In her foggy vision she saw the bloody blade rise. Her vision clearing only around that object as it prepared to assault her again. She instinctively grabbed for her gun. Grimacing in the pain of moving her torso.

She couldn't see well but she did what she could, aiming, and firing the gun at Hyung's leg. It hit. Although she wasn't sure how well. It was enough to buy her time. He grabbed onto his leg crying out in pain. Still clutching his sword but facing it away from himself.

She took her chance, and ran. Getting up was the hardest. He almost caught her again as she flailed trying to stand. Standing used the torn muscles in her side which meant she could barely keep herself from passing out as pain erupted past the imaginable threshold. each cut like acid eating away at her life with every movement.

Then she ran. But she did not run back to her room where she believed she might be safe. Instead she ran down the other way. Toward Im-Yong. It didn't matter to her, what way. Just away from Hyung.

It was hard to imagine being able to run in such imaginable pain, but while she felt every second of it adrenaline pushed her to keep moving without fail.

"Catch her!" Hung commanded Im-Yong. And he obeyed. Much to Michelle's dismay.

Blood was already staining her blue dress. Coating down her side. Running down her leg to pool in a small little circle around her foot. But still enough to be a disturbing size. Her hands as well were bright and dark red from where she held her own wound trying to stop it. But with each breath of air it moved her side just slightly enough to add an extra layer of pain, and to gush out more blood, "Please! Don't let him hurt me!" She cried pleading with him. She could feel her legs losing the ability to hold her so she held onto him tightly for support. She thought he seemed nicer of the two. She hoped maybe he would believe her.

"I won't. You'll, you'll be okay," he answered her. But he did not whisk her away. He did not carry her out of there. Or even drag her away from there. He didn't so much as put himself between her and Hyung.

Hyung soon managed to walk over here. Every step her heart raced faster. He was coming to kill her. She would be dead before long she realized. But. She didn't want to die! And yet. She couldn't wait for the pain to end. It was mind numbing. She had grown used to it now so she didn't notice the constant pain. But the trade off was she couldn't concentrate on anything. Her mind was slipping. She had already lost the ability to stand on her own. She was completely reliant on Im-Yong to keep her from falling right then and there.

"Hand her over," Hyung demanded his voice completely serious.

"Why did you attack her like that?!" Im-Yong demanded back, holding onto her.

"She would have gotten away. I would have liked to question her first but there was no time," Hyung answered, "Now hand her over before she does something."

"But she hasn't done anything," Im-Yong objected.

"And lets make sure she doesn't get the chance to! Now! I should not have to explain myself to you! Hand her over!" Hung looked at Im-Yong with a glare so serious that it scared him to think what he might do to him if he didn't.

Im-Yong looked down at Michelle with regret in his eyes, "I'm sorry," he said before turning her over to Hyung.

"NOOOOOO!" Her scream was blood curdling. As she was dragged away several feet by Hyung. She looked back at Im-Yong her eyes filled with tears of betrayal.

Hyung threw her down onto the hard dirt floor, causing her to let out another scream of pain. She tried to push him back with her weak arms. But only ended up getting cut as he hit her again with the blade. This time it cut her right index finger to the bone and broke it. As well as sliced open her shoulder pretty good.

"Nooooo! Please!" She begged, "No more!" Her body felt cold and useless. There was very little blood left in her body. Her head was already melting into nothing. She felt one final blow before she faded. A slice to her throat. She could feel the sharpness of the cut. And her own uselessness at not being able to cry out. And she began to feel what little blood she had left, betray her. Burning it's way down her throat filling her lungs. But the pain ebbed away after a moment and then there was just nothingness.

(Im-Yong)

Im-Yong watched on in horror as Hung proceeded to murder Michelle. There was nothing he could do he reminded himself. It was over quickly at least. Im-Yong didn't look. The sight was horrific. Traitor or not he didn't wish a death like this on anyone. He looked down at his own hands. They still carried blood from when Michelle had clung to him. There were spots of it all over his clothes actually. It made him feel an even worse guilt. He should have done something. He should have tried to protect her more. But how could he have? When one wrong move would have left them both dead at the hands of Hyung.

He heard footsteps signaling that Hyung was... finished. Im- Yong turned around refraining from looking at Michelle. He knew she was dead. and he had just stood there and watched it happen! Hyung limped forward. He was covered in as much blood as Im-Yong. There should have been more on him, but there wasn't. The only thing of Hyung's that was saturated in blood was his sword. it actually dripped with blood! It took him another minute or two to realize the cause of Hyung's limp.

He had been shot in the leg. He'd forgotten about that in the heat of the moment. He now clearly remembered the sound of the gun firing."You're hurt!" Im-Yong tried to help him walk. The man scared... not terrified him. But that was why he felt he had to show loyalty. he feared if he did not. Then Hyung would just kill him too.

"Yeah. that filthy traitor shot me," He complained.

Im-Yong winced at the violence he heard in Hyung's voice. He still wasn't sure if Michelle had really been a traitor or not. But Hyung seemed to believe so, and apparently Hyung's opinion was the only one that mattered. "Th-There's a first aid kit back in the room. Let's take care of your leg before anything else happens," Im-Yong helped Hyung walk, taking him back to the room.

(Prussia)

They'd been walking down this same path for ages. It was leading them way back. "Why can't we go anywhere?!" He complained to Hungary who had threatened to hit him with her frying pan if tried to go off on his own again. She was leading them now. So any decisions were left up to her.

"I've told you three times now! We're going to run through th perimeter of maze. so we need to take the path as far back as it will go. I'm betting you that the exit is somewhere along these walls," Hungary explained once more.

"But there's all these paths right here what if one of them lead to the exit?!" Prussia whined. A straight path was too boring for him, he wanted to take a look around.

"There are other groups in this maze. And I'm betting you that not all of them are likely to recognize us as friends instead of enemies. We can't just go down some random path without having some sort of plan," Hungary explained to him, getting rather irritated by him constantly asking.

They were at the end of the path before too long anyways, "Alright prussia. You want to pick something? Which direction should we go?" She asked him. There were two options. Left or right. North or south.

Prussia was still didn't want to just go in one direction. he wanted to see everything at once and go everywhere!, "I am too awesome for this!" He complained and started walking away. Screw Hungary! He didn't need to listen to her he would just go his own way.

"Prussia get back here!" She called after him. He continued to walk away. Damn he'd been like this ever since he was a child. Stubborn and Arrogant. She raised her frying pan and hit him over the head with it hard.

Prussia fell to his knees shortly. Holding a hand to his head as it rang again . and again. pounding sharply causing him an instant migraine," OW! What the hell Hungary!?"

She sighed dragging him back by the ear, "If I let you out of my sight you'll get lost and get yourself into trouble. Come on, We're taking the hall to the right."

(Russia)

Russia came out from around the bend, and onto the main path. He saw a figure just a little ways down turn the corner. He turned right, onto the main path to avoid them. He didn't want to hurt anyone else. And right now he wasn't sure what he'd do. He ran straight passed the second turn as well. At this point he had to stop and catch his breath, leaning against the wall. It was there that he began to come to terms with what he'd just done.

He covered his face with his hands. Tears washing away the blood that stained them. He'd just killed Poland, and attempted to kill Lithuania. He was supposed to protect them! He was a failure at this. All he could seem to do was kill. He wasn't even sure why he'd attacked in the first place. Lithuania well, he liked to believe they were friends, although after this he wondered if they would be. And as for Poland... well Poland was someone he was supposed to protect! He didn't understand it! He didn't want it to end up this way! No one ever saw him as anything but a monster. And now they never would!

He sobbed harder into his hands. He looked down at them to see the red blood dripping off his hands as the tears washed the away. 'And why should they?' He thought, 'It's all I've ever shown them. Maybe, all I've ever done.' And how badly he wanted to prove to them how good he could be. How, much he wanted to show them his kinder side. And yet he kept tripping up! It seemed that for every single step forward he made, he'd fall a thousand behind. It was utterly crushing. And had been that way for centuries.

Russia suddenly heard footsteps. It was hard to tell what way they were coming from. Or how close they were, but they were getting closer by the minute. He got up quickly. He was still too scared to find out exactly what he would do if he ran into someone. He turned down the next hallway ducking out of sight.

(Vladimir)

He had been walking down this path for quite a while now. He and Alfred had parted ways with Berwald and Tino just pretty early on as well. Tino and Berwald had taken the path leading south down the long straight stretch. Alfred and Vladimir on the other hand were now making their way along what they believed to be the furthest point back. There were no left turns to tell them otherwise. Although he guessed it was still possible to to circle around. The vastness of these tunnels were still unknown.

They soon came upon a left turn, "Alright, " Alfred said, " One of should check out this path, and see where it leads. Then circle back."

"You think it's safe to split up?" Vladimir asked, a little concerned.

Alfred listened carefully but only heard silence, "I think we'll be okay. I don't think anyones nearby, but we should stay close. If you run into any trouble just shout, and I'll come to your rescue."

Vladimir thought about which way he should go. Then noticed that down this way the lights were dimmed, and some were even just flickering. He really wanted to get out this light. Suddenly the tunnel seemed rather welcoming, "Alright then. I'll take this path. I'll head back when it ends."

Alfred looked nervously at the dim and flickering lights as if they scared him, "A-Are you sure. Cause I would totally go if you don't want to," He offered putting on a brave face.

Vladimir smiled, "No I got this one. See you soon."

And then he turned gracefully around and started down the dim path. It had an instant effect on him. The dim lighting was comfortable, and calming. Actually he'd like it even better if there were no lights at all, but at least now he could see better. And his headache was gone too. He relaxed more enjoying the relief the path set on him. It wasn't long before he across another path, turning to the left. He considered taking it; the lights in this path were completely burnt out. But for now he just continued on his current path.

It was actually sad when the path began to grow lighter and come around a bend. He sighed, wondering if he couldn't head back for a little while to rest. Then of course Alfred came around the bend opposite him.

"Hey, Vlad! Anything down your way?" Alfred asked as they got closer to the middle.

Vladimir shook his head, "Nothing just the tunnels. What about you?"

"Agh, No There was another turn, but after that it was just a dead-end. So I took the turn and it led me here," Alfred complained.

"Looks like this corner's just a loop," Vladimir deducted, forgetting the turn he had passed earlier.

"Yeah, anyways, we should head back to the room. The others will be there soon. Maybe one of them has found something. And at least we'll be able to cross out sections of the map," Alfred explained.

"Alright let's just check out this last path here, " Vladimir said, not fully wanting to go back to the group. Every time he was surrounded by everyone he got such a massive headache.

"That's fine, we should just get back soon is all, " Alfred shrugged, and they walked down the short path to the right, in the middle where they met up. It quickly opened into a larger path going horizontally in front of them. They turned left and after walking a bit it became apparent where it led, "Hey check it out! This path leads right up to the one Berwald and Tino were on! Awesome! Shortcut!" Alfred shouted with excitement running to the turn in the hall that led to the main path.

Really?! A shortcut? Fate was out to get him. Vladimir sighed heavily following Alfred out onto the main path. He really didn't want to go back. Not yet anyways. Could he get no rest?!

By the time he caught up Alfred was already briefing Tino and Berwald, "-so we're just about to head back."

Vladimir grimaced as his headache continued to get worse, and the tightness in his chest was back as well. He blamed it on the lighting. It was too bright again. The light in this hall was a great deal brighter than the one they had just been in. He wondered why the lighting didn't seem to bother anyone except him. He chalked it up to having over sensitive eyesight.

He missed most of the conversation. But they were heading back up the path now. Most of it was a blur, but he noticed when they stopped at the spot where they had all separated.

"You think the others are on their way back yet?" Alfred asked fairly concerned for their safety.

"I don't know. It depends on how far they went," Tino answered him.

"You think we should wait here for them to get back?" Vladimir asked.

"HEY! You guys are back already?!" Mathius yelled, still quite a distance down the path. Emil and Lukas following behind him.

"Find anything?" Lukas asked the rest of them when they were close enough to talk without shouting.

"Not really. We've cleared the east corner, but we haven't exactly found anything," Alfred clarified, "how about you guys?"

"The path leads down quite a ways and then looks like it opens up into a bunch of paths. Other than that. Not much over here either," Emil answered.

"Have you guys seen Michelle?" Tino asked noticing she was the only one absent.

"Not since we split. What about you guys?" Emil answered Tino and asked Vladimir's and Alfred's group.

They shook their heads, "Alright guys. Let's go look for her. then once we're all back we can sit down and have lunch!" Alfred announced leading them down the path Michelle had taken.

Vladimir flowed behind silently. Not paying much attention to the conversation of the rest of the group. It was something about where they should look next, and what they'd found. His headache was back again. This time with a vengeance. Pounding in his head harshly and ceaselessly. without end it continued. 1-2, 1-2, 1-2. again and again, without end.

He fought to keep it from showing. He could tell it wasn't normal. There must be something wrong with him. He was sick or something, but he didn't want to burden the others. He could take care of himself just fine. He wasn't going to let them keep him cooped up, while they went to find a way out. And he wasn't going to let them treat him like he was incapable. And so he wasn't going to let them know in the first place.

He clutched at his chest momentarily, dropping to the back of the group. It felt tight and swollen. Unbearable really. And it only got tighter the further they went along. He wondered just how much more he could take. Accompanied by the incredible discomfort he felt, was the smell of something sweet. It grew stronger by the minute. He couldn't understand it. Was someone cooking? Whatever the smell was. He longed to taste it.

After a moment the group turned the corner. But it wasn't until Vladimir had already taken a few steps around the bend that he heard the screams.

"MICHELLE! OH MY GOD!" Alfred yelled.

'Had they found her?' Vladimir wondered. It didn't sound good. He ran to catch up with them. Freezing moments before he did. In front of a tiny puddle of blood. His chest clenched to the point where his breath caught in his throat and he could only manage a strangled breath of air every thirty seconds. And his teeth felt as if they were going to pop out of his own head. He couldn't take it much longer. And then the smell. It was overpowering especially right here. He felt almost drawn into the little puddle.

He stepped away realizing what he was doing. God! what Was wrong with him!? He must be mentally unstable as well, for him act like this. The thought terrified him. What was he doing?! He looked up at Alfred and the others. They were hunched over Michelle's corpse. Crying and yelling. Just trying to figure out what happened. The blood around her body was immense. as if it had all been drained out from the lacerations to side shoulder and. Apparently throat.

The sight of it had him in a daze. He took one. Then two steps forward. Then he froze, snapping out of it. What was he doing?! He didn't even know! Nor did he understand what could have possibly caused him to go this crazy. Yes. He was crazy. That was his rationalization. The only possible explanation he could think of. His chest got tighter., and now he really couldn't breathe, and the headache took over his thought and hearing.

Realizing it wasn't going to stop. He ran. Back along the path. Without looking back. He just had to get of there. Before... something... happened. He headed back toward the room, and away from people and the sight of blood. He didn't know why it was driving him crazy. But he didn't want to know. He just wanted it to stop.

America turned around, hearing the sound of footsteps running. He was just in time to see Vladimir disappear around the bend. Well shit! He hadn't thought about how a sight like this might affect him. Alfred rubbed his head. Better just give him some space for now. He'd talk to him later. Now Vlad probably need some time to chill out, and relax.

Alfred's focus returned once again to Michelle. Poor Seychelles! She had seemed to be handling this place so well! And she was such a brave girl! Alfred knelt beside her, avoiding kneeling in her blood. Why did she have to die?! He realized he failed again. He was supposed to protect her. But now she was dead. What good was a hero if he couldn't save one person?!

He looked at her mangled body. The cuts made into her skin were deep. The one to her side was deep enough to to show the shredded remains of her inner organs. And the one on her shoulder. If you looked closely you could see bone. And then the blow to her throat! That was the worst of it. Her throat hadn't merely been sliced open. But ripped open by one or many jagged blades. He was able to see her vocal cords filled to the brim with her own blood. It was a gruesome sight. He imagined it must have been painful feeling your lungs fill up with your own blood. Burning your throat, while breathing became impossible. And the of course the Harsh and constant sting of the cut, and the feeling of growing cold as all your blood was drained from your body. Whoever did this to her would pay. He'd make sure of that. But he also reminded himself, that she could be brought back. So he wouldn't kill this person. At least not until they had returned Michelle.

America suddenly remembered the world around him. Pulling himself from thinking too much about seychelles. He refocused. He still had a group here. And they were still alive. And he'd be damned if he let anything happen to the rest of them.

He pulled himself together, taking a deep breath, "Ok. We need to get everyone back to the room. No one goes anywhere alone. We all need to stick close. Is that understood?"

"Bu-But what about Michelle?!" Denmark asked still crying.

"There's nothing we can do for her now. But I promise you. We'll find whoever did this to her, and we'll make him pay," Alfred comforted him, " But for now I want to make sure everyone is safe... And Vladimir ran off so I'm hoping he went back to the room. Otherwise we'll have to go looking for him."

"Yeah, alright," Finland answered wiping away tears on his sleeve. Sweden hung over him protectively.

And so America began to lead them back to the room. in a silent funeral parade. As they all cried inwardly in mourning.


	5. Chapter 5

-_-' I barely got this done in time! phew! and it got stretched out so this is only half of what was going to be in the original chapter! :o but I was running behind and this was already at 20 pages so I decided this much would make a nice chapter. :) Fair warning my October is a crazy month. And Thursday's I will be watching this EPICNESS! XD ~~~ watch?v=FlsA0aobNoU ~~~ (Yeah that's just the teaser for this Thursday's part!) and the Plus I'm working . and in November I will not be posting at all because I will be entering in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). But before that I will try and write as many chapters as I can get out.

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Please excuse all the spelling errors. I will get around to editing it after the story is completed! Thank You!

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(England)

England trudged his way down the hall. Did he really just get stuck in the same group as France?! Why him?! This wasn't working out like he'd hoped. It was supposed to be simple. Just go in with everyone, and make sure they don't kill each other! But now France was involved. Even in his own mind he said the name as if it caused him pain.

Well, they hadn't been going for very long before they were reaching a split in the path. Maybe this was his break, his chance to get away from that bloody frog. Then he could actually focus on what he here for. Taking care of his brothers. Seamus and Allistor were carefully walking just out of earshot, and putting a distance between themselves and England. Of course leaving him to walk at a relatively close distance to France. But he was more concerned about what they were whispering. They kept whispering and looking back at him and france. It was infuriating.

Finally England had had enough, "What are you gits bloody whispering about!" He shouted at them, face red with embarrassment. He felt exposed having them stare at him.

Scotland and Ireland stopped whispering realizing they'd been caught. Their faces went pale white, "Nothing," They tried to pull off.

"Fine," England muttered to save himself from further embarrassment England just dropped it. At least they'd stopped whispering now.

Within moments England and France had caught up with Scotland and Ireland at the split. "We're going to take this way. Why don't you two take the other path?" Scotland told them.

"No way!" England yelled. He was supposed to watch them. Not be stuck with the frog! "I'm not going with him!" England yelled.

"What's wrong with me. Mon cher? Honhonhon. Or are you just afraid of what might happen if I get you alone?" France grinned.

Well England hadn't been until he'd just said that. Now he had a whole new list of reasons he didn't like the arrangements. He blushed bright red, "I am NOT getting stuck with him!"

France smirked deviously. "What are you-" England started.

France grabbed him from around the waist, "You guys go! I'll watch over Arthur!" He yelled to Seamus and Allistor.

Meanwhile England was fuming and thrashing wildly. "FRANCIS! YOU BLOODY FROG! LET GO OF ME!" He yelled at him trying fruitlessly to break free.

Seamus and Allistor looked at each other stifling a laugh, before taking their leave dashing around the bend and out of sight. As soon as they were a good distance they stopped, to catch their breaths. And once they had started to regain it they broke into laughter. Seamus braced himself against the wall, while Allistor merely fell to the floor.

"Did you see the look on Arthur's face?!" Allistor laughed.

Seamus high-fived him, "Which one!" He laughed.

Seamus laughed harder, "All of them!"

They continued laughing until it got old "Think it'll work?" Seamus asked.

Allistor responded confidently, "Of course! You saw the way he acted around Francis. They're perfect for eachother! I bet it won't take more than five minutes." Allistor was still partially joking. He guessed it might take a bit longer. But seriously. It took him and Seamus all of three seconds to figure out Arthur was in love. It couldn't take Arthur himself much longer than that. Right?

Of course they barely knew him, except they had the same family name so they assumed the three of them were brothers. That only made it that much more personal for them. They were setting up their little brother.

France let go of England just as soon as the sound of footsteps faded. England at this point was passed the point where he could be considered furious. He turned around and clocked him. His face bright red with anger and slightly from embarrassment.

France held his cheek where England had punched him. Why did he always have to respond with violence?

"Bloody FROG!" England snapped, although calming down a bit more now that he was free, "Those are my brothers! I'm supposed to keep them safe!"

"Putain ça fait mal," France muttered under his breath in french.

"You know I can't understand a word you're saying when you speak french," England crossed his arms. He was doing the purposely to bother him.

"You weren't meant to," France looked away, still a little mad at England for punching him.

"That's not fair!" England complained, "I don't have a fancy language you don't understand!"

"Well, If you learned some french you wouldn't have this problem," France suggested.

"Like I'd ever learn that rotten language," England scoffed, but secretly he actually had been trying to for years now. He just wasn't very good... and couldn't pronounce the words worth shit.

France laughed, it was a conversation they'd had many times before. It always ended this way though. He decided it was better just to change the subject, "Alright, we should go take a look around," France said standing up.

But what about my brothers?!" England demanded. He still wasn't comfortable with the idea of his brothers running off alone.

"They'll be fine. We'll catch back up soon. Anyways their older than you shouldn't the worry be the other way around?" France asked. He didn't know why england always seemed worried over his older brothers. Scotland had practically raised him. And it wasn't like they were incapable of taking care of themselves.

England followed anyways, "You don't know them!" He shook his head, "They always seem to find someway to get themselves into trouble. There's a reason why I was put in charge of the United Kingdom instead of them."

"I just thought it was because they were always drunk," France said jokingly.

England actually laughed, openly, "That probably had something to do with it too."

France smiled, It was the first time he'd heard him laugh like that in a long time. Usually what he heard was England laughing at his defeat. Needless to say not his favorite memories.

It wasn't to much further that they reach the end of the tunnel. There was one turn to the right, but just before it there was a map.

"Let's stop here a moment and see where everything is." France said noting the usefulness of the map in front of them.

England agreed, taking a look at the map, "So here's where we came in." The map was easy for him to read. He'd help create this place by the picture.a lot of the hallways were familiar, and those that weren't seemed placed in a way that they easily could have been there and he had just forgotten. But the exit was still a mystery.

"So, wait a minute. If you can remember the layout of this place. Shouldn't you remember where the exit is?" France asked suddenly wondering why he hadn't asked sooner.

England shook his head, "I never saw it when we were building it. So, either Alice added it in later, or..." England broke off. Or what? It didn't exist? No it had to. Or else they'd all just be wandering around here aimlessly. Although he wouldn't put it passed her to block it off, or make invisible. It was always some sort of puzzle, never that straightforward. He wondered why he hadn't realized sooner.

"You think it might not exist?" France asked, a touch of worry showing.

England shook his head, "No I'm sure it must. Maybe not where we can find it though. it's probably some kind of puzzle."

(Mona)

Mona turned right. She'd already lost track of Elizaveta. She'd disappeared before she had the chance to even catch up to her. So, now she decided she might as well explore these tunnels herself. It was oddly quiet. No one was around so all she could hear was the sound of her own echoed through the tunnel. But it was strange. They didn't echo all that loudly either. As if the walls absorbed most of the noise.

She turned left this time. despite all these turns the hall didn't have any splits. no real choice in the path she took. Only forward and backward. And there'd be no point in going backward. So she continued forward,and did so for quite a ways. She wondered if this hall would lead to the exit. Or if she would have to travel through many halls after. She hoped not. She just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

She turned right this time, but this time. It rather quickly led her to a split. 'My first real choice,' she thought. One leading left. And the other right. She wondered what way could possibly lead her to the exit. It gave no such hints. She would have to choose this one on her own. She shook her head. She really couldn't be sure.

She turned and took the path to the right once hadn't been on that path for very long before an uneasiness came over her. She started to second guess herself. Maybe she should have turned the other way? It wasn't too late. She could still turn around. She looked back. No She wouldn't turn. There was no reason to. Not really. It was just her own mind making her nervous and uneasy. She just wanted everything to work out.

About the time she hit the first turn she started to hear something. voices. They were coming from just the other end of the tunnel. And they were talking nonsense! Mentioning thing that made no sense! Things she had never seen in these tunnels, and couldn't expect to see them here. Against her better judgement she inched closer. Just trying to hear what they were saying more clearly. It was incredibly dangerous, and reckless, her sliding along the wall closer to them. There was nowhere to hide, if they suddenly turned the corner or anything like that. She really should just keep going past them. But she didn't she just had to hear this up close.

"Well here is America's group. If we aren't going to find a way out anyways I think we should at least go check how he's doing. I mean he has to watch an entire group himself. It's gotta be utter chaos!" The first voice spoke with an accent. She couldn't make heads or tales of what he'd just said. And that much had nothing to do with the accent. He seemed to know way too much. About other groups? But It also didn't catch her as if he wanted to hurt them. But then He knew things like. America? What was that. The way he said it, it sounded like a name. But her mind wouldn't let her think that way.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, mon cher. If he really is having trouble with his group. We will just make it worse. Either way really, we'll make it difficult just by being there," The second voice she didn't feel really had an accent. He talked the way she talked. But there was something about it that seemed familiar. She just couldn't place it.

"But if he IS in trouble then shouldn't I be there trying to help?!" the first voice argued.

"He can take care of himself, he's not your colony anymore. He's grown up into super-nation. Don't you have any faith in him?" Aaannnddd... Now the second voice had officially lost her. They were talking about this america as if he were a colony. Or a nation. But then suddenly as if he were a person. She couldn't make sense of it.

"You're bloody right I don't! That kid is going run himself right into the ground. Have you seen where his economy is at recently?!" The first voice sighed, "I just worry about him you know? He's completely impulsive."

"Just trust that this time he'll figure things out himself. We have our own group to worry about, " The second voice encouraged him.

"You're right... I hate it when You're right! Why do you always have to go and prove me wrong?!" The first voice argued irritably.

The second voice laughed, "I only prove you wrong when you need to be proven wrong."

"But why does that have to be every time!" The first voice complained. It took her a minute, but suddenly Mona noticed that their voices were starting to get fainter. And she heard their footsteps leaving. She wasn't going to let THAT happen. She had a lot of questions for these people. Starting with how they knew so much. She wasn't about to let them just 'walk away'. She cocked her gun for safety, before spinning around the corner to face them.

(Hyung)

They made their way further down the tunnel. Avoiding the turn they'd originally made. Mostly because Im-Yong had begged Hyung not to go further down there. He didn't want to see her body.

Hyung continued to limp. Despite having bandaged his leg, it continued to hurt him. That was to be expected though. Shot wounds didn't just heal. They took time. He really should be resting it. But he wasn't going to have that. He needed to find this exit. He needed to get the innocent people out of there.

He unwrapped the note from around his weapon. He read it over. There were clues riddled within it. He was sure of that. He read through the note picking through it. Unfortunately it gave him no leads as to where the exit may be. But it did raise suspicions, and cautions for him.

First of all the note promised that once this was over everything would be fine. He assumed by that it meant, that if one person could escape everyone would. It was hard to tell, but that's where he believed the clue was leading him.

Then there was this line, 'There is of course an exit and once you are out your head should clear, and that amnesia you seem to have will go away.' This much was obvious, find the exit and you'll be able to remember. He wondered just what he'd remember. It might lead him to finding ways to getting the others out. Or discovering why this was happening in the first place.

But the line that worried him was written just a bit further down. It read, 'But that's not all of course. Life is never that simple.' It went on to mention the traitors. But he had to wonder if this implied that there was more than was written on the note. If so, what else was their? What twisted game were they playing at?!

Whoever was behind this note was playing a game with him. Playing a game with their lives. Whoever it was was responsible for all of this. He wouldn't forgive them for it. But right now they had all the answers so he had to follow along. Solve their puzzles. Be smarter than them. That's what it would take if they wanted to get out.

They turned a while back without him noticing. Now they were heading down what appeared to be a main path. Well, if it wasn't, this place was bigger than he could have imagined. They were a little ways down now. Almost to the next turn. It led left. They almost passed it. But then Hyung heard something. It sounded like voices, arguing off in the distance."Im-Yong. Hold up a second. I think we should take a look down this path," Hyung called to Im-Yong who was already attempting to walk away.

Im-Yong had heard the voices too. He was just hoping Hyung hadn't. He didn't know if he was right. That girl could have very easily have been a traitor. But he couldn't be certain. And that uncertainty rode on him. She hadn't even fought back. Well, she shot Hyung in the leg. But that was self defense. She could have done a lot worse, and still not be seen as a traitor. Well, at least not by most people. But he couldn't prove she wasn't and to Hyung that was apparently enough. He knew he couldn't cross him. If he did it would cost him his life. So until they were out he had to follow what Hyung said. But that didn't mean he wouldn't try to stop him when he could, "I think we're more likely to find an exit this way."

"Scared will run into more traitors? don't worry I'll protect you from them, " Hyung answered noticing Im-Yong's uneasiness.

'That's not it,' Im-yong answered, but did not speak aloud. it was too late now. Hyung was already heading down the path.

(France)

"Don't move!" A voice said from behind them.

England and France stood with their hands raised and slowly turned around. "Monaco?" France asked surprised.

"It's Mona. H-How do you know my name?! ...Or almost know it," She was taken aback. Clearly shocked, and a little scared at this realization. She cocked her gun aiming it at France.

France held his hands up higher, fighting a bit of laughter. This was serious. But the Idea that his little sister was holding him at gunpoint was tripping him up a bit, "I'm unarmed! See?"

Her eyes darted to the two of them. Surprised, yet again that they would be unarmed as well. "Answer the question," She said focusing on France.

France struggled to find a good way to explain it. It was hard, most explanation led to more questions. And those questions he couldn't answer. He was drawing a blank Why did he have to say her name like that?!

"Answer me!... Or Or I'll shoot!" She said seriously.

"Okay. Okay. It's because you're my sister," He answered. This wasn't going to end well.

"H-How could you possibly know that!?" She asked blinking in surprise. It was just one shock after another.

"B-because of your last name. Bonnefoy right? It's the same as mine. I'm Francis Bonnefoy," He tried to answer. He just needed her to calm down.

"But how do you know my last name?!" She asked angrily.

France looked at England who was glaring at him for getting them into this mess in the first place. Then to Monaco who was also shooting daggers at him for not giving her answers. Then to the floor. He couldn't think of anything to tell her. He had no reasonable explanation for it. Not one he could tell her anyways, "I-I, I can't answer that."

"What do you mean you can't answer that?!"

"I mean if I tell you, I'll disappear, and I won't be able to help you," He tried to explain, not giving away exactly what was going on. Being careful not to mention the note, or who they were.

"You're not making any sense!"

"I know. I'm sorry, I can't say much more. I'll answer what I can, but there are a lot of things I can't answer," Tried to plead with her.

"Can we put our hands down yet?" England asked, "We are unarmed."

Monaco pulled her hand away from the trigger, but made no attempt to lower it. However, she motioned that they could lower their hands now.

Mona was still rather pissed off at their half-answers. She wanted answers and they were being as vague as possible. Which just left her with more questions. But, she lowered her guard with them, because they were unarmed. She held the power here. "I heard you two talking earlier. What were you talking about?" She asked they had better at least explain this much.

They looked startled like deer in headlights, "Y-You heard us talking earlier?"

Mona gave them a look. They knew the answer, "yeesss," She dragged out rolling her eyes.

"H-How long?" The one with the accent asked.

Why did it matter?! Couldn't they just explain to her what they knew?! Why were they keeping so many secrets?! The only thing keeping her from accusing them of being traitors, was the fact that they were unarmed, and were fairly polite. If you didn't count being vague against them. "What's America?" She asked. She wasn't too sure if it was a who or a what, but they'd get the idea she was sure.

This time they looked really scared. What were they so afraid of? Was she getting close to prying at their secrets? Just pry a little deeper she told herself. Then maybe she'd uncover something. "W-Will you excuse us a moment," The one with the accent spoke again. Now what?!

They stepped just a few feet out of hearing distance. "We're bloody dead Francis!" England whispered at the loudest volume he thought safe, "She heard us talking using our real names!"

"I know. If Alice heard about this-" France started.

"If Alice knows! Ha! She's probably sitting over the keyboard, spell book, whatever just waiting for one word of us slipping up!" England ranted.

"Shhh! Quiet mon cher!" France put a finger to England's lip, which only caused him to become even more pissed off, "She can hear you. You'd be surprised just how good her hearing is," Francis looked back at her cautiously.

"Well!? What do you suppose we do?!" England murmured irritably.

They heard the sound of footsteps just a moment too late. Monaco's scream rattled through their eardrums, turning their heads to see her held throat to blade by North Korea. South meanwhile was frantically panicking trying to stop North, "Hyung stop it! She's on our side! She's on our side!" He screamed. The two of them were both covered in blood. Most of which they were sure wasn't their own. This wasn't their first fight.

Hyung pulled Im-Yong closer with his free hand. He whispered into his ear, as well as into Mona's who was still struggling, "I won't hurt her. I know she's innocent. I just need a hostage to get some information out of them. Now be quiet before you blow it!"

France's eyes widened, he of course hadn't heard North Korea whisper, and now believed his sister was in real danger. "Monaco!" He yelled in glared at him, as if to tell him to shut up.

"Who are you?" North Korea asked.

England answered, because while he was scared for Monaco, she wasn't his sister, "I'm Arthur Kirkland. And this is Francis Bonnefoy. Please we're unarmed."

North Korea didn't miss a beat, turning to France, "I thought her name was Mona. Why do you call her Monaco?"

France didn't answer, "Just let her go!"

North Korea held Monaco up higher, pressing the blade visibly closer but not enough to draw blood, "answer me!"

France fell to his knees, tears starting to form. "Francis. You can't," England said sensing what he was thinking.

"But I have to do something!" He ebbed away the start of the tears. He couldn't watch another fight happen in front of him. Not when he believed he could stop it. And Not when it was his sister about to die. "It's because she's my sister!" He answered North Korea.

"How do you know this?! None of us can remember anything before we woke up!" North asked not taking his eyes off of France.

"Be-Because we have the same last name!" France attempted to sell him the same excuse. He was at least less likely to ask how he knew that.

Hyung Soo froze for a moment, "Bonnefoy?" He asked.

The one he'd been talking to answered slowly, almost cautiously, "Yes."

That was the third time he'd heard that last name. The second time was when they'd found that first traitor. He put it off as a coincidence then. he and Im-Yong even shared the same last name. The names didn't mean much. The note didn't even make it clear if they were their real names or not. But now he had to wonder. Could even that part of the note have been a clue? He'd suspected for a while that someone from his group was really a traitor, but he'd also suspected it was those three who were keeping something secret.

He looked at Mona with a new light. She was now connected by name to two traitors. he hadn't heard much of the conversation between her and them, but she seemed rather lenient on them. He was angry. He pushed her against the wall. His hands tightened into fists. His right one around his sword. "So it was you!" He yelled.

Her eyes were wide with fear. She was truly scared for her life. There was no way to know what Hyung would do.

"Your. The traitor we didn't find!" It all made sense now! They must have found some way to disguise their marks once they read the note. The names were the last line of defense connecting them. He glanced at Im-Yong. He'd have to keep an eye on him.

"No Please! I don't even know them!" Mona begged.

"Hyung! We know her! She's part of our group! We saw her back! She's not a traitor!" Im-Yong tried desperately to stop him. Everything but pushing him away.

"It's the names! The names! There are two traitors with the same last name as hers!" He shouted to get Im-Yong to stop whining.

"Please! believe me she's innocent! She's innocent!" France was also trying to stop him. Why would he jump on her like that! He was panicking so much it took him a moment to realize what North Korea had said. It wasn't until he heard England say it that his concern grew.

"What do you mean two traitors! neither of us are traitors to start with. And my name is bloody Kirkland. I'm not related to that frog!" England pointed at France.

North Korea barely glanced in their direction, "I didn't mean you when I said two. There was another one."

It struck France hard, nearly doubling him over. They'd been in another fight before. names ran through his head. But one in particular stuck out, "Seychelles!" He whispered. Tears stung at his eyes. He had to be sure, "Who was it! What was their name?"

"Not that it matters. But she called herself Michelle," North answered, lifting his blade, to Monaco's throat.

France collapsed, "No. Not her! How could you ever think such a sweet girl was a traitor!" He wept.

Hyung turned to Mona, "Anything you can say to prove yourself innocent?"

"Please! I'm not a traitor! I don't even know them! I don't know why our names are the same! You have to believe me!" She begged, tears streaming down her face. In her desperation she couldn't think of a single thing, except to beg. Tears streamed down her face as she cried.

Apparently begging didn't work on Hyung. Neither did tears it seemed. The ringed blade drew back, to strike her. In that instant she saw a flash. She couldn't say it was her life, but perhaps her will to live? Her right shoulder was still pinned to the wall, but her arms could still move. She moved instinctively to block the attack. The first blow struck the side of her face knocking off her glasses, and tore open her arm. She cried out from the sudden pain. It was sharp and sudden and then went onto burn like hell.

She fell to the floor, in agony. She didn't see the the next one coming. There was a hard bump on her head, that knocked her unconscious. And that was the last thing she'd ever feel.

"NOOOOOO!" France cried out in internal agony as the final blow left the blade lodged, in her head. Monaco's eyes were blank as they stared straight ahead blood rushing over them. Her expression pained and still. North Korea struggled to get the blade out. South had backed up almost behind the turn as tears budded at his eyes as well.

England held onto France securely. He wished he could just knock him unconscious, but that would mean he'd have to carry him and that would be even worse. "Francis!" England managed to get out. He was having a hard time of this too. He didn't want to see anyone get hurt this time around. But already. Already he knew of two people that had died, and those two were practically family. They were much closer to France though. So he couldn't imagine the pain he must be in.

"Let me go!" France complained, "I'll kill him for this!" Anger raged through France's entire body.

England managed to spin him around, "You can't kill him! Your completly unarmed! You need to calm down. Besides I think Alice would hand us our asses on a platter!"

France was almost shaking with anger and grief, "Their killing our Family Arthur! He's killed Seychelles, and Monaco already! Who knows who else!" He spoke with vendiction, "I-I won't let him get away with this!"

England struggled to get him to focus, "Francis! Bloody listen to me for once! Look, they can still be brought back! Just as long as he's still alive! But if you kill him. We won't have that chance now will we?"

It took France quite a few breaths to calm down, but he eventually did. Regaining some form of self composer. He took another deep breath. "You're right. We need to look at this ra-" There was the sound of a blade against skin. And then France collapsed to a kneeling position. North Korea's blade protruding from his back as blood began to well around it through the clothing.

North Korea appeared behind France. In his concern, England had been completely oblivious to the closing distance between North Korea and them. England was in a state of shock for several long seconds. In that time North managed to pull the blade out of France's back.

France made a barely audible sound of pain as the blade was dragged out. Blood began to pool more strongly around the base of his back. Dripping through his shirt and onto the ground, as he lay face down in the dirt.

England stumbled backward a few feet. Torn between trying to help France and just getting away as fast as possible. France looked up. Dirt on his face sticking to the places where tears had not yet dried. His expression was pained and writtled with concern, "Run. Angleterre. Save yourself!" France begged.

Somehow this only made the decision harder. North Korea was fast on his feet. Quickly closing the distance between him and England. England stumbled backward trying to avoid the blow. He failed. The blade pierced through his clothes and the skin of his belly. And in much deeper than that. Until the second ring had completely buried itself in his stomach. It hurt about the same initially, but it was quickly ripped out of his body, carving a brand new path through his body. Like barbed wire hanging off a sword. He keeled over once it was released. The pain was unimaginable. More than he had felt when he had been shot. This was a pain of at least ten times that.

He believed North Korea left after that. It was the last he saw of him anyways. Arthur crawled closer to France was just barely holding himself up. Tears brimmed in Francis's eyes, "Why didn't you run Mon Cher? If even just you had gotten away," France couldn't finish his sentence.

"I-I tried, but he was too quick," England apologized, "listen to me. There's something. I've wanted to say for awhile now." England looked embarrassed. And instantly wished he could take it back. Or that Francis would forget he said anything.

The cold ache was creeping up on him. France's body was already number to the initial pain. Now there was just the freezing numbness as the blood from his body pooled around him. "My angleterre. What is it?" His English was starting to fail him. He hoped that he would still be able to understand him.

England clenched his teeth as another wave of pain, and then dizziness swept through him. Then he had to focus on actually saying the words. This was hard for him. He'd been denying it even to himself for centuries. But he wanted to say it now. For what seemed like it might be the last. "Je-Je Taime," He managed to stutter out. He'd learned this word specifically for this purpose. Although he hadn't expected his confession to have been hear. While they lay dying on the dirt floor.

Francis blinked twice. The second time bringing forth tears. The pronunciation was horrible, he had pronounced it - "jay time"- but to Francis, there couldn't have been a more beautiful sound ever uttered. Tears streamed down his face, as he used some of the last of his breath to gasp, "I love you too. Mon cher. Forever and always."

The words came as a relief to Arthur. Normally he'd be to busy worrying over whether the words were true. But he was to weak to care. They seemed genuine and that was enough to satisfy him. He took in a pained breath closing his eyes and laying his head down. His hand which screamed in agony at the thought of movement, wandered to find France's. The two cold hands entangled, they each managed two peaceful breaths before they faded together, into the blankness of death.


	6. Chapter 6

I've been waiting to write this part for 3 months you guys! 3 :3 I promise chapter 7 will be up next week too~

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oh btw... I dare you to listen to this song while reading this :3 - watch?v=5K4PGpXsOAI

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(Elizaveta)

Hungary stared at the wall cringing slightly. So this way had led the to yet another dead end. Why couldn't they just find the path that led them out of here? Was that too much to ask for? Her head starting to hurt from trying to remember everywhere they had and hadn't checked. She ran her hands along it. Maybe it was invisible. That was silly of course it wouldn't be. But then again she wouldn't put it passed Alice to try something like this.

"Come on Hungary! This is boring!" Prussia complained leaning against the wall. He just wanted to wander around. They'd find it eventually that way right? What's the point of all this back and forth 'only take one path at a time' nonsense?

Hungary clasped her hand over his mouth to keep him quiet, "You're not supposed to call me by my real name! Here I am Elizaveta. Okay?!"

Prussia broke free from her smothering hand, "It's not like there's anyone here right now. So It's no big deal."

"Yes! It is a big deal! You never know when someone could be right around the corner listening to us!" She continued to scold him, "Come on. We're going to check out the other way."

He hated it when she scolded him. He wasn't a child anymore. And even then, they were about the same age! "You used to be way more fun, " He muttered under his breath. When had she started acting like this? He missed the days of their childhood. She stopped dead in her tracks. Her hand clenching around her frying pan. Shit! had she heard him!

"What did you just say?" she asked.

Well he wasn't going to deny it now, she'd hit over the head with her frying pan either way, "It's true. You're no fun anymore."

She spun around angrily, "I can be fun!"

"Not anymore. Now you just take everything seriously. You never have time for fun."

"Well, I can't just ignore responsibility! And this is serious Gilbert! Why can't you understand that?"

"I know it's serious! but why does that mean we can't have any fun with it?! In a few days this will all be over anyways," Prussia just couldn't understand why she had to go and be so serious all the time.

She turned around silently and continued walking. She was ignoring him now. They had important things to do, and she wasn't going to let him slow her down anymore. They came up to the split in the tunnel. She was going to turn right but then. She heard voices. They were coming from that direction. She took a quick peek and saw two figures moving in the opposite direction. She lay flat against the wall.

"What is it now?" Prussia asked, slowly catching up. He laughed at how nervous she looked, pressed against the wall.

"There are two people down that way. They must be from the new group. We'll have to go around," She decided warily.

"Are you serious?! It's just two people Hungary what are you so scared of? We used to take on much bigger countries than that!" Prussia couldn't understand her. Time had driven a wedge between them. They weren't like they were as kids.

"They aren't from our group. If they see us they might think we're traitors. I don't want to mess this up okay?" Elizaveta sighed heavily, "And I wasn't the one who took on Russia. That one was your fault."

Prussia took a look around the corner, "Are you serious Hungary! They're actually falling over laughing right now!" He was sorely disappointed.

She shook her head, "We can't mess this up Gilbert. Let them keep on whatever they were doing. We'll go around... And call me Elizaveta here!"

"You really have changed," Prussia said saddened.

"That's probably for the better. Look what happened to you," She said bitterly.

Ok that one took it too far. He knew he wasn't a country anymore but she didn't have to rub it in! Well if her plan was to get him to shut up, it worked. He wouldn't be speaking to her in quite a while.

They turned the next corner, taking the left tunnel. Right away she could tell there was something wrong. At first she just thought the room looked a bit dimmer than it normally would, but as she got closer she noticed the unevenness in the floor. And then she discovered what it was. "Oh my god!" She ran over to them. They were still quite a distance away when she'd discovered them, so by the time she'd made it over there she was already panting.

England and France lay face down in the dirt. Blood dirtying their clothes and faces. Despite their brutal injuries and amount of blood loss. Their expressions seemed almost. At peace. Their brows we're still furrowed from wincing in pain, but a smile washed over them. And their hands intertwined in a tight grasp. As they held onto each other as if holding onto their own lives. She knew right away they had died. From the injuries and amount of blood it would have taken minutes. Her heart went out to them. She touched them each softly on the head sending a silent prayer.

She looked up and saw another body several meters away. It took her a moment to recognize the crumpled body. "Mona?!" Shock took over for the next few seconds. She was part of her group! She actually LIKED Monaco. She was nice, and she was sensible. How could she be dead?! How could England and France be dead for that matter?! They were apart of those who knew what was going on! She looked back at them briefly, confirming her suspicion. They weren't even armed! So either they had never been armed. Or their attacker had taken their weapons. But given that Mona still had her pistol she found the latter unlikely.

By this point Prussia had finally caught up, "What the hell happened?!"

"I don't know. But look at this!" She pointed to England and France, "They weren't even armed! Whoever did this. Did it in cold blood. And over there! They killed Mona too!"

"Damn! Who do you think did it?! I mean we practically know everyone involved here," Prussia commented surprised that malice had once again taken over.

"I bet it was those two we saw earlier. Their the only two around here," Hungary said angrily.

"Woah. Chill out! Let's just go back to trying to find an exit," Prussia suggested. He didn't like how angry she sounded. It was dangerous.

"Well we can't just leave them here! And what about those other two?! We can't let them run off to kill more people!" She cried overwhelmed by seeing such a sight again. The last time it had been cold and dark and rainy. Last time she had know idea who she or anyone else was. But this time was different. This time she knew. This time they were trapped in a maze. And yet it still hurt just as much.

Prussia walked on without her. She'd follow eventually... Or hit him in the head again, "Well there's nothing we can do about it now. In a few days this will all be over and they'll be fine."

She didn't understand how he could be so calm with all this. But he did speak some truth. They weren't dead. At least not in the permanent sense. She followed after him, "but we should at least warn the others! Our group should at least listen to us!" She turned with him.

"But that's on the other side of the maze! We'd just be wasting time! I bet no one else is heading back yet!" Prussia complained. Why should they go all the way back there when they had unexplored tunnels right here! And anyways no one was even going to be there when he got back!

Hungary sighed stopping at the break in the path. One way led back to the main hall, and the other through many different turns and tunnels. "Alright. Let's pose a bet," She offered.

Prussia grinned this was the first time she was starting to sound fun again! "Alright let's hear it!" Prussia grinned eagerly.

"You will go back and warn are group and act responsible for once in your life. You know take things seriously. And I will I'll take a look around for the exit, and then try and... relax and have fun. And not take things seriously. First one to break wins."

"Aww but you get the easy one! That's not fair!" Prussia complained.

"You think it's going to be easy for me not to take this seriously?!" She complained, "by this logic I can't even take the bet seriously!"

"Wait, how are we even going to know if one of us breaks?!" Prussia asked.

"Well I was hoping Alice would help us with that. Knowing her she's already making up a tally sheet. She's got this whole place wired anyways."

Prussia grinned there was no way he was going to lose. Especially not to Hungary, "So what do we wager?"

Hungary gave it some thought. She wanted him to remember this. So she made the stakes as high as possible. Whoever one this would forever be the one who made the "right" decisions. And had a stronger will. "Alright if I win. You are to listen to every word I say as if it is law. And you're never allowed to argue with me again. Because I was right."

"Seems a bit harsh don't you think?" Prussia seemed nervous. The stakes weren't supposed to be placed so high for little bets like this.

"Wait until you hear what I'm offering. If you win, I'll give you the Western Transdanubia Gyor region," She wasn't planning on losing anyways. there was no chance that Prussia would beat her, it was a safe bet. She felt confident in it. Besides this bet would keep him on his toes, he had too much at stake. Even the possibility of once again becoming a country.

Prussia wasn't completely certain she was serious. But if she had bet it, then she must be. Bets and deals between countries were binding. They could not be broken. At least not without dire consequences. So this was more than a child's bet. The stakes were high. He could lose his dignity, or he could reclaim his country. "You're on," He said.

They shook hands sealing their fates. Then turned and headed in their own directions. "I'll see you once this is all over," Hungary said, stepping into the winding tunnels before her.

She wondered if he would get lost on the way back, but he was already gone now. He was on his own from here on. She smiled there was no way she could lose this bet, and pretty soon she'd have him groveling at her feet. Now how was she going to go about finding her way around in these tunnels.

(Vladimir)

His head was still ringing as he lay under the cotton blanket on the floor. He'd already put out the light. Actually, he might have broken it, he couldn't remember. He remembered wanting to. Anyways it was dark now. Still, he felt the need to cover his head with the thick cotton as if to block it out further. He could breathe again now. It seemed as if that much of it was gone. His chest no longer felt so tight and swollen, and his teeth didn't hurt, but his head still rang, bringing tears to his eyes. It hurt so bad! But at least now it was just a painful echo. Nothing like he'd felt when he saw Michelle's body.

The drum beats still continued to echo in his head. Steadily. He was almost used to the sound, like it was a song that refused to end. He wondered if maybe he had some freak mental disorder that would cause him to hallucinate symptoms like this. He couldn't think straight. And trying to caused his headache to get worse. he relaxed onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. He shouldn't be able to see, but there was a crack of light in the doorway, that allowed him to see everything clear as day. Maybe he should get some rest he thought. closing his eyes. It will be gone when he wakes up.

His head echoed louder in his head this time than it had before. He opened his eyes to see bright light blaring down at him, blinding him. He sat up quickly, rubbing his eyes, and taking a deep breath. Only then could he hear the voices. "Hey! you're finally up!" Alfred said, "We kept the lights dim cause you were still sleeping. Want us to turn them up?"

Dim?! It was blinding! "N-No I-I like it like this thank you," He answered, rubbing his eyes again. When he opened them he could see what they meant. It was pretty dark in the room. But his eyes kept trying to adjust making it too bright, even blinding.

He noticed Alfred shrug, "Suit yourself. We're just grabbing lunch before we head back out. Mandatory groups now. We don't what happened to Michelle to happen again. How are you feeling?"

"YOU WANT SOME POACHED COD?" Mathias yelled again. It was as loud as the first time he'd heard him yell, and yet the only one it seemed to really bother was Vladimir.

Vladimir cringed at the extreme volume of the yelling, "Yeah I'm fine. I-It's just a bad headache," He held his head which ached heavily. "Yeah, maybe some food will help."

He gratefully took the forkful of poached cod from Mathias. He could barely see it as his head pounded loudly. He took in the mouthful and instantly felt sick. It's not that it tasted bad, it tasted just fine, good even, but he had a sinking feeling if he tried to swallow it he would just spit it back up again. Still, he didn't want to be rude, and so he swallowed it. He looked up to see that most of them had gone back to their conversation, over strategy... and for some of them food. Except that Alfred kept glancing back at him. Had he noticed that Vladimir was probably very ill? He hoped not. He'd tried very hard to hide it. but then it was really hard to hide it all from them.

His chest started to clench as he worried. he quietly gasped for air, being careful not to let anything show. His stomach churned with a violent rage threatening to tear him in two. It made his breath raspy and his head shaky. The pounding in his head then grew to volumes it had not before reached. tears stung at his eyes as he struggled to keep them back. He needed to get out of there before it got worse.

"I-I," His voice came out strangled and broken, "I think I need to get some fresh air," He managed to stand up and walk out of the room calmly, without showing any signs that his legs felt like jello, and he was seeing stars instead of the room.

Once the door shut behind him he relaxed. He was now free to let out how he felt. but leaving the room, unlike last time, did nothing to stop the pain. He tried to walk further away. He clutched his chest as he stumbled his way slowly down the path. It was still too bright in here, he would towards that hall he checked last time. The lights would still be out, that should at least help clear his head.

He suddenly had to keel over. He threw up the bite of cod he had eaten previously. Like he thought, It didn't sit with him. but that wasn't the end of his trouble. no It just got worse from their. he still, felt nauseous and it took a great amount of will just to stand again. He was broken.

He struggled to remember which tunnel led where. He came around the bend and came face to face with one of the maps that lined the walls. They were supposed to help. They were supposed to guide you out, but they didn't exactly keep you from getting lost. If he didn't know better he'd say that the walls had a will of their own and were constantly moving.

But that wasn't what bothered him right now. The maps themselves were little more than an annoyance. There was a flash as he looked at this one, correcting his vision. a smudge of dirt smeared across the upper portion of it. At first glance his vision had turned red, and he thought it looked like... blood. He ignored it turning left at the fork in the road presented by the map. This should take him back to the tunnel he had explored earlier. He should be able to relax then. Without the blinding light flooding through his eyes. He didn't remember it being this bright!

He finally made his turn down into the dark hallways. His tunnel was darker than the other ones, but not dark enough. He turned down the other hallway into it's welcome pitch blackness. He could only see about three feet in front of him between torch lights. The lights seemed to dim as if they were about to die. He suddenly felt even more feverish, as if he was dizzy; he couldn't feel his legs. They were all wobbly as he tried to concentrate on what was going on. His head began to swell and pound as a sudden migraine took over again. He thought he'd lost it back a ways. It was always there, but this was different. This was overwhelming his very thoughts. As if all he could think was the beat of the drums on his head.

His hands reached up to try and quiet it, collapsing to the side of the wall, as his mind seemed to explode pounding at a steady pace. 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, over and over in his head... like the sound of a heartbeat. what was happening to him? He felt numb, yet in excruciating pain at the same time. He took a deep breath the uncomfortable clenching in his chest was actually a pleasant feeling compared to the headache that had come over him.

He shivered as he tried to stand, his eyes remained clenched tightly in fear of worsening his headache. He braced his hands on the side of the wall to keep himself upright. He had to just get to somewhere, he could get some help. He didn't care anymore if they knew. This was serious. Maybe even life threatening. He half crawled out of the dark hallway. It had led into a dead end anyways. He wondered if anyone else was going through something like this. At the very least he needed to warn them.

He opened his eyes to try and see where he was going. As he did he was blinded with light. Although not so much that it hurt. It was just way brighter than before, and also... everything was red. Like before it only lasted a few seconds. Then the lights dimmed, and went back to a normal color. He held his breath and tried to walk a few more steps. Every few minutes his eyes would flicker back to the red vision. The time between each flicker was getting shorter almost too quickly, and it almost took him more concentration to see normally. Soon the flicker came every time he would blink. Causing him to almost constantly see the deep blood red color. He could still hold it off if he wanted to. But it took so much concentration that it caused him more pain to his head then he could deal with, so he left his eyesight the way it was. Red. Red was everywhere. Making everything crimson, like the color of blood. Making him hungry. But that wasn't right. No. It made his chest clench even tighter. his stomach had nothing to do with it.

Suddenly he couldn't take it anymore. He collapsed in a heap beside one wall. He was panting heavily. Which just made him more and more uncomfortable. He felt the need to claw his way out of his own skin. But He remained perfectly still. His head overcame almost all thoughts drowning him with the steady beating. 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2. It never had an end to it!

He needed something to put an end to this constant turmoil. But he couldn't think about anything besides what was going on at that exact second. A slight burning filled his upper jaw. It was warm and almost pleasant, as he felt his mouth go numb from shock.

His hand reached up, quivering from his feverish symptoms. They felt along his teeth. His thumb traced the tip of his pointed canines. Long before they met any other teeth. He pulled back his hand as the tip of his index finger felt a sharp sting. It was barely noticeable under the horrible headache. His eyes opened though, as he felt its sting.

His vision was still red. But the little drop of blood that welled on his fingertip was very clear. Several seconds passed as he stared at the single droplet ravenously. At that moment his mind gave in to the tormenting headache. As his mind screamed out for an explanation. Giving it control. Once he had, the pain subsided considerably. Taking over his mind. If he wasn't so worn down he would scream from the torment it was causing him. But It was too late for screaming. His throat had closed up to the point where that was no longer possible. He was split into two.

Horrible nightmares screamed through his subconscious as he realized the truth. He understood what was happening now. And there was no time left to deny it. His mind played over a thousand scenarios, each one leaving him more and more soaked with the blood of his friends. He didn't want it to happen, but his body did. It yearned for it so much it clouded his moral judgement. If he could move he would be writhing in agony right now, from his internal turmoil. In his mind he already was.

He bit into his own wrist to try and ease the pain. The hunger driving was him mad. There was no more time for questions. He could no longer think. Emotion. Rational thought. Logic. All of it locked away deep within his mind. As the bloodlust took over. He had started to run on pure instinct. Like a terrified animal. The blood that flowed from his wrist was cold and lifeless. He pulled away quickly as it only seemed to make him hungrier. He backed up against the wall holding himself as still as he could, to try and fight the urges. His eyes betrayingly, scanned for blood, or any source of life.

There was nothing. It scared him just how frustrated about that he was. Although he couldn't even think at this point. Things like that had been locked away. Another jolt of blood lust went through him. Causing him to growl at being held off from seeking a meal. It sent shivers through him, as he struggled just to keep himself restrained through a brink of sanity.

He began to see things in the darkness and insanity that continued to grow from hunger. Like his nightmares played before his eyes. As his surroundings became blood drenched before his blood red eyes. His world vanishing leaving only one of violence and insatiable bloodlust. The more blood he began to see around him, the more hungry he became.

He was about to pass out from it, when he heard the echoing heartbeat in his head pick up a beat. He looked out in front of him trying to locate the source of the sudden growing headache.

His eyes sent waves of more vibrant reds into view as he looked around. Someone stood, just down the hall. Threatening his very sanity.

"Vlad?" Said a voice barely audible over the drumming in his head.

Vladimir tried desperately to place a name to the person who stood just a few yards down from him. His vision was fading to the bloodlust. But he needed something to hold him back. To keep him from trying to attack the person in front of him. The one who was moving closer.

"_" Vladimir tried to speak but his throat was closed off from the bloodlust. It took him too long to get it working again. The person had already made it within just a few feet of him, "S-Sta-ay ba-ack!" Vladimir warned.

The person moved just one more step closer. Vladimir could see who it was now. It was Alfred.

"Damn! I knew it! You are a vampire!" Alfred exclaimed kneeling beside Vladimir, making light of the situation.

Vladimir winced as the ache in his lungs twisted sharply at Alfred's closeness. He tried to inch away but only managed to move about an inch.

Alfred noticed Vladimir's wrist as he moved. It was still bleeding a little. A small trail of blood ran down Vladimir's hand. And several drops had stained the floor. He picked up Vladimir's hand which was ice cold now. "Vladimir?! What happened to your hand. And why are you THIS cold?!" Alfred exclaimed worried.

Vladimir shifted back in shock at the touch, tripping over himself. Alfred's hand was so warm against cold skin, it was almost pleasant burning sensation, like a hot bath after being out in the cold for too long. His eyes widened with fear as his instincts and bloodlust threatened to take over again. He gasped at the touch out of shock. Things just got worse from there. Breathing in the air so sharply sent his senses wild. He could literally taste the blood in the air. So. So close to him. It was dangling right in his face!

Alfred noticed his teeth then as well, "Dude! look at your teeth!" He continued to joke around not noticing the danger of the situation. He reached out somewhat unconsciously to poke one that stuck out beyond Vladimir's bottom lip.

Vladimir's eyes widened and he tripped backward trying to distance himself from Alfred, "D-Don't! P-Please! You have to get out of here!" Vladimir was panting just a few feet from Alfred. Shaking visibly. He was doing everything in his power not jump at Alfred's throat.

Alfred seemed to have finally caught on to what was happening here. You think he would have noticed sooner considering. "Shit! You're hungry aren't you?" He backed up a few seemed suddenly much more cautious. Well he should be! He didn't seem to understand what was going on very well. Vladimir could practically see the gears spinning in Alfred's head.

Vladimir ignored Alfred's first question, unable to answer him. He feared that if he did he would lose all control.

Alfred voiced his train of thought. He scratched at the back of his head somewhat embarrassed, "I'm sorry man. I didn't realize," He pulled out the collar of his jacket tipping his head to the side, exposing his neck, "If you need to... drink. You can have some of my blood," He said it hesitantly but confidently.

Vladimir's reaction was one of shock. Why couldn't Alfred just run?! Why couldn't he behave in fear like a normal person would? He didn't want to hurt him. If he had any more self restraint reserved he would have personally run away then, and gotten as far from Alfred as possible. But he couldn't. The temptation was too strong. And he'd become too weak to fight it. He didn't even have enough strength left to try and change Alfred's mind.

As Alfred finished speaking Vladimir lunged at him, unable to control his thirst any longer. His fangs digging into Alfred's throat, right along that delicate vein that had been driving him to the brink of insanity. Blood pooled rather slowly into Vladimir's mouth, The warmness of it filling him to his very core. His mind exploded as it was filled to the brim with the steady drum beats once more. But this time it was a much more pleasant experience. The steady sound of a heart beating was the only thing he could hear, the only thing in his mind, and it became his world.

As the blood flowed through him it entered every corner of his body, spreading throughout his core, warming him up from the inside out. He felt his body begin to relax and breathe properly again. But now he couldn't stop. The taste of Alfred's blood was unlike anything he ever would have considered blood to taste like. It had a metallic taste to it, yes. Like liking a penny. But it was also incredibly sweet. Sweeter than he thought it should be. But mostly warm. Warm and sweet.

He continued to drink, savouring every last drop he came in contact with. His mind only focusing on that alone. Slowly the steady beat in his head became more and more uneven, and then weak. The body in his arms grew suddenly limp. And he heard Alfred make a pained noise.

Vladimir broke away immediately. Suddenly realizing what had gone terribly wrong. "No," He whispered, his eyes growing teary, " . No. No!" He repeated again and again. This couldn't be happening! But it was. He could feel it.

Alfred looked at him through fading eyesight. He took three staggered breaths. And then lay silent. Vladimir heard the sound of Alfred's failing heartbeat inside his head. It beat six more times after his last breath. And then it fell silent. Vladimir froze. Listening. Praying for it to beat once more! Tears began to stream down his face as he clung to Alfred's limb body.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey Guys I'm back! :D guess who else is back. XD read and find out. :3 I'm in a good mood cause it's been a while since I wrote with him. And I LOVE writing with him! and another reason which spoils the chapter so I won't say it :p I think I can fit in another 1-2 chapters before november hits. it all depends on A. how fast I write it. and B. How long it is.

I've at least started on this weeks chapter, but... 2 weeks for this one? DX sorry! I wish I could write faster but I'm also trying to translate Russia's White Flame, before november as well.

* * *

(America)

America watched Romania leave. Maybe some fresh air would help him, but he'd been gone for more than ten minutes now. He didn't look to good either, and given what had happened to Seychelles, he should really go after him. However he was also 98 percent sure Romania was a vampire. It's not like Vlad had openly told him he was... But he was pretty sure he matched the description of every vampire novel he'd ever read. Well, except 'Twilight', but that those were shitty vampires anyways. He also wasn't sure how the others would cope without him. He was sure they could manage not to go at each others throat, but some of them were also likely to try something stupid.

He finished the last of his burgers first. No use looking for someone on an empty stomach! "Alright. I should go look for Vlad. It's dangerous to wander around these tunnels alone now. Will you guys stay put until we get back?" America stood up. He was taking this Hero business seriously.

"Shouldn't one of us go with you?" Norway asked.

"No way! I want to go look further down the tunnels this time!" Denmark complained.

"No I won't be long. We'll be back in ten minutes and then we can all leave as group. Please just stay here," America said backing out of the door. He shut it behind him. The hall was empty. Of course it was. It's not like Romania was going to be standing right outside the door. No, Of course not. He had to go and track him down.

He walked down the barren path. There was no sign of him. He found it hard to imagine that Romania would have gone very far. He stopped at the break in the road, there was a map there. He looked at it. Not that it helped him any. It's not like it pointed out to him where Romania was, but it did jog his memory. Maybe Vladimir would have gone back to the tunnels they were exploring earlier. That one was really dark. He seemed to like it better when it was dark. Which was one more reason why he thought Vladimir might be a vampire.

He headed for those tunnels, at the very least it was a good place to check. If he wasn't there though he didn't know where else to look. This was why you were supposed to tell people where you were going before you wandered off! He turned onto the dark path.

He had squint to see, but it looked like the shadow of a figure slouched against the wall. "Vlad?" Alfred experimentally called.

There was a stir from the figure, but no sound. America walked over to see for sure. "S-Sta-ay ba-ack!" Vladimir finally, stuttered out. It was dark in this hallway, but Alfred could still see decently. Well, that was great he'd finally found Romania! That wasn't too hard.

"Damn! I knew it! You are a vampire!" Alfred exclaimed kneeling beside Vladimir, he said noticing that Vladimir's red eyes almost glowed in the dark room.

America suddenly noticed Vladimir's wrist as he moved it. It was still bleeding a little. A small trail of blood ran down Vladimir's hand, and several drops had stained the floor. He picked up Vladimir's hand which was ice cold now. "Vladimir?! What happened to your hand. And why are you THIS cold?!" Alfred exclaimed worried. His wrist was bleeding, had he cut it? How much blood had he lost exactly to feel this cold?!

Vladimir shifted back in shock at the touch, tripping over himself. Alfred watched with confusion. Romania seemed scared of him for some reason. Did he not recognize him. How did he get hurt in the first place?! Had someone attacked him?! Could he be mistaking him for the attacker? He was suddenly very concerned for Vladimir.

Then Alfred noticed his teeth as well, "Dude! look at your teeth!" He continued to joke around trying to get Romania to open up and explain what was going on... And the teeth looked really cool. Romania had fangs before, but these were twice as long, and looked razor sharp. He reached out somewhat unconsciously to poke one of the fangs that stuck out beyond Romania's bottom lip.

Vladimir's eyes widened and he tripped backward trying to distance himself from Alfred, "D-Don't! P-Please! You have to get out of here!" Vladimir was panting just a few feet from Alfred. Shaking visibly. And that was when the final piece of the puzzle magically clicked into place. Mystery solved. But now he almost wished He didn't know.

"Shit! You're hungry aren't you?" He backed up a few steps. He really should have figured that much out sooner. It seemed extremely obvious now, and of course everything he'd done up to this point was like poking an angry bee hive.

He felt instantly responsible. Whatever Vladimir was going through, was partially his fault. He felt the need to fix it. It was his responsibility right? He was supposed to be the hero.

Alfred voiced his train of thought. He scratched at the back of his head embarrassed by his mistake, "I'm sorry man. I didn't realize," He pulled out the collar of his jacket tipping his head to the side, exposing his neck, "If you need to... drink. You can have some of my blood," He said it hesitantly but confidently. There was no going back on it now.

Vladimir's eyes went wide, but he could not hold himself back. He launched himself onto Alfred. Alfred clung out of fear to Vladimir's back. He felt Vladimir's teeth pierce into his throat. He jerked from the sudden pain, but the motion was halted as Vladimir clung to him.

The pain subsided after just a moment. Then it was just silent. Alfred's eyes were open and wide. He was scared, but he believed he was doing the right thing. He had to be selfless, and do what was right. Right now, that meant putting his group before himself. A lot of people believed him to be quite selfish, and to some extent maybe he was. Although Never entirely. His passion to always be the hero drove him to be occasionally selfless.

He was suddenly very tired. Vladimir was mostly supporting him now. His breathing slowed, and he felt weak, limp even. However from what he could see, Vladimir looked like he was doing much better. The role of who was supporting who reversed, as Vladimir began to be the sole provider of support. His head lolled back as if he were incredibly tired. He couldn't force his eyes to stay open any longer. His body began to grow weak, and now cold. His heart raced a little faster, which only sped up the process. Soon it slowed considerably, and became uneven. It was uncomfortable to start with, but now it was starting to hurt again. His heart beat became uneven. As his blood pressure lowered far beyond dangerous levels. He was scared, but he couldn't bring himself to scream, or to yell, or to push away, or anything to to stop it really. He let out a strangled noise as his heart faltered a beat.

Moments later He felt Vladimir withdraw from his neck, and lower him to the ground. He heard Vladimir whisper, "No," it sounded pained, and then he repeated it over and over again. Alfred felt cold and tired. To move even his pinky finger caused him immense pain.

A drop of something wet landed on his cheek. With immense effort Alfred peeked open his eyes. He looked up briefly to see Vlad's face looking down at him. Tears, streaming from his eyes. Alfred wanted to reach out and assure him, that it was okay, but he no longer had the energy. He wasn't scared anymore. This was just the way it was. In a few days it would all go back to normal, he thought. 'Just take care of the others,' he thought to ask him, 'okay?' He took one more breath taking in it's wonderful life-giving feeling, and then let it fade. As he fell into the peaceful nothingness, and death greeted him.

(Elizaveta)

Well. Now she knew how Prussia felt. She had been walking all of five minutes, and she was already completely lost. She had no idea where she was going, or even where she was. All she knew was that she was already completely and utterly lost. She figured if she was supposed to be wandering aimlessly around the maze having 'fun' she might as well just take every turn she came across. I didn't matter though, she had to be doing better than Prussia was.

She walked into a long hallway. It looked like to the left, it also crossed paths with the main tunnel. She didn't go that way though. That was too predictable. She turned right instead. Unsure of where this path would lead her. She was about to pass the first turn, when she heard something. It sounded like a voice. Or maybe a whimper. No harm in checking it out. Someone could be hurt. Besides apparently having 'fun' meant throwing caution to the wind.

The path was short, and soon split into two paths. Right and left. She had two choices.  
She could still hear the voice, it was coming from the left side, but the right side that meant something else for her. She could still change her mind, thinking more rationally she should move away from the voice. Her presence would likely only make matters worse.

Without hesitation she chose the left path. She was winning this bet. She had too much on the line now not to. This path turned only once, and of course, it turned into a tunnel with almost no lighting. Of course now she was going to come straight to face with someone or someones in a dark alley. 'Great decision Eliza!' She mentally scolded herself. This was the price of proving a point to Prussia?! Why did she have to go and raise the stakes like that?!

She couldn't see anyone for quite awhile. The tunnel here was so dark she could only see about a foot in front of her. She followed the voice though. When it got so close she could make out the figure she hesitated. She'd been careful up until this point to walk silently. Now she had a new problem. How was she going to announce herself without scaring the crap out of whoever it was. There was something else too. She could almost place the voice. It was just too quiet for her to tell. However it was, was someone she knew well.

She walked loudly trying to get their attention more gradually. It made her nerves dance like crazy, but she did it anyway. 'Be reckless huh?' She thought, 'Well I can't imagine how much more reckless I can get.

The figure noticed immediately, but as she got closer she began to realize it was not one figure but two. Only the first moved though. It spun around, she was almost within enough light to make them out. "W-Who's there?!" It cried still broken from sobs.

She halted. She didn't need to move any closer to know who it was now. Didn't need any better lighting, or for them to speak even a little more. She knew who it was. She'd fought with him for centuries. The only nation she would consider to be her true enemy. It was Romania. What was he doing here?! There was no way someone like him would have wanted world peace. He'd been fighting with her for centuries! The years of bloodshed and malice came back to her.

She wanted to just turn around and ignore him. Whatever he was going through she would just leave him there to suffer with it. But then she remembered something important. Just because he was Romania didn't mean he deserved to suffer for no reason. She forced herself to remember that this version of him, did not remember her or those years of bloodshed. She also forced herself to remember that she was here to help. Not cause problems, or abandon them. If she did that, then why was she here in the first place?

She decided to at least find out what was going on. She started to walk forward again, "My name is Elizaveta. What's wrong?" She may have decided to help, but she couldn't bring herself to sound happy about it. Her voice ended up sounding strained.

He was cautious, but otherwise accepting of her presence. He put a hand to his face, "I didn't mean to. But, it's all my fault! You have to believe me, I didn't mean to!" He continued to sob loudly, rubbing away the tears.

Now Hungary could see why he was crying. The second figure was clear now. It was America, and by the looks of it, he was dead. She rushed over the remaining distance to be certain. Sure enough he was lying cold and dead on the ground. She noticed the fang marks on his neck. The years of bloodshed could not be entirely forgotten. Especially not here. Not matter how hard she tried she could not erase the memories from all those centuries. "You did this!" She snapped at him. Looking him dead in the eye. Of all those centuries she had never seen him look so frightened. So afraid, so weak, so hurt.

This was a side of him she hadn't seen. That was the thing about wars, the enemy always tried to hide it when they were hurt. "I-I-I know. I'm so sorry. I didn't want this to happen! I tried! I tried as hard as I could not to hurt him! But-" He broke off into sobs. Staring down at his hands, "I'm a monster," he whispered.

Elizaveta wished now that she hadn't snapped at him. Which is the closest thing to sympathy she's ever felt for him. She watched him weep for a moment longer. A small tear drop landed close to her. She stared at it for a moment as all those days of war came flooding back. Night after night of wishing things could just go back to the way they were. When she didn't have to fight all the time to protect what was hers. When she stared at it she realized that Romania had also been through the same pain, she just hadn't seen it. It was bittersweet. On the one hand, it felt like sweet revenge for every last bloody battle she had to fight. On the other... she never wanted to see anyone go through what she had. If it all possible, she wanted to see that no one went through that pain again.

Words repeated in her head. Important words. She didn't owe Romania anything. But she couldn't leave America to lie there dead. Or leave Romania to watch over his body and suffer. No she would end cycle of hatred between them here. She was going to help him... no matter how much the thought perplexed her.

"I-I can help," her voice broke at first, "You can't ask why or how I know. But I can help you bring him back," The words were out there. Now she just hoped he wouldn't ask. If he did, she would leave now. She was trying to rebuild a bridge destroyed centuries ago. She sure as hell wasn't going to build it by herself!

Romania looked up at her, his eyes wide with shock, almost disbelieving but incredibly full of hope. "What do I have to do?" He said with the determination that he was ready to sacrifice his own life.

Vladimir didn't know who this girl was, or how she knew so much. Logic said he shouldn't trust her. But she said she could bring Alfred back. If that was true he'd do anything she asked.

Elizaveta closed her eyes a moment as if trying to remember something important, "I'll tell you now, that this won't be easy or painless." He didn't think it would be. That didn't matter, he just needed to bring Alfred back.

Elizaveta continued, "The first step is to injure yourself with the same weapon you used to kill Alfred. Then you have to write in blood the words 'forgive me' next to him. This should bring him back," She finished standing up. She was going to put some space between herself and them. She didn't know how this magick stuff worked, but she sure as hell didn't want to get hit with any of it!

Vladimir did as she said without hesitation. The wound he'd given himself previously, had disappeared, but the area was still sore. That made it hurt all the more when he bit into it. It was harder to do than it was earlier too. That was likely do to the fact that his canines has reverted back to their original size.

He finally broke it open. The blood seeped through it, glistening it in the dim lights. He had gone back to normal now. The headache had entirely disappeared, and his chest felt fine. His eyes too, were behaving normally. He owed it all to Alfred. He owed his life to him! If he hadn't saved him, he might have killed more people. Or he might have just died right here.

Now he was going to do whatever it took to bring him back. He turned his wrist over and squeezed it, letting several drops of blood fall at a time. This was going to be a long sentence. He brought his wrist back to his teeth. The wound was starting to close, and he needed it to drip faster. His arm felt numb now. Except for the spot where he had bitten into, that spot, stung like hell! He was half way through the first word when the blood soaked words began to glow. And then followed Alfred's corpse. It was working! He put his wrist to his lips trying to seal it. Alfred would kill him if he got himself hurt again!

He stared in awe of the white light that would bring Alfred back to him. Slowly that glorious white light died. There was a brief moment of panic as Alfred continued to lie still. The blood on his collar remained, even though the fang marks had disappeared. Had he messed up? Should he have finished writing it all the way through anyways? But then he heard it.

The most beautiful sound in all of creation. It was faint at first. Just one. Then another. Growing steadier by the second. The 1-2, 1-2 rhythm replayed in his head as soothingly as it had when he had bitten him. But this time it brought something else back with it. Memories one by one came back to him as each beat of the heart slowly brought Alfred back. It was stronger now than it was before. Beating confidently in Alfred's chest.

As the memories returned, he remembered who he was. He remembered all of history. He remembered the countless battles he'd fought with Hungary. At one time he thought she might be the spawn of the devil himself. Now he had to wonder. It was possible that she had decided enough was enough. She had helped him when he needed it. She helped him bring back Alfred! He was certain they could never be friends, but he was starting to wonder if it wasn't possible for them to one day get along.

These thoughts were pushed within seconds to the back of his mind. In front of him was Alfred, and he was alive and breathing, and right now... the most important thing in the word to him. All of history could wait. Just so he could relish in this one moment.

Alfred suddenly sat up, breathing in deep gulps of air. His eyes wide with confusion. Vladimir gripped Alfred's hand, tears of joy and relief flooding to his eyes.

Alfred turned to look at Vladimir, "Vlad?" He asked. As if too stunned to understand, "What's going on here. I-I what happened?"

Vladimir brushed away a tear with his free hand, "America," he said calling him by his real name, "I'd never let you go like that."

America continued to ramble on, the way only he could, "But I don't understand how did you-" The realization suddenly smacked him in the face, "You. Called me by my real name."

Romania nodded, "It all came back when you did," he pointed to his head. "But America, why are you here? You weren't with the rest of us," he suddenly wondered. He recalled the note they'd received earlier. It mentioned traitors, which now worried him. Whatever it was though. He trusted America. He'd been given more reason to trust him than not to.

America suddenly seemed very uneasy. He had to think it over carefully first. Which was a bit unusual for him, "Okay. I'm going to tell you something. But I can't promise what will happen next. I might disappear. If this happens I swear, I'm fine. You just won't see me until this is all over," America promised him.

Vladimir was very uneasy about this now, "Then don't tell me. I don't want you to disappear."

America shook his head, "No I think it'll be alright. You remember who you are now, so there's not much left to hide. It's probably better that you know," He said the last line louder, as if he was trying to convince someone else.

Alfred seemed to be searching for the words, "Some us, the ones that weren't with your group, have been through this before. It was in a different place, and the rules were different, but almost the same thing happened. Now it's happening again here. I don't know about the others. But I wanted to make sure no one died this time. That's why I came back. I wanted to be the hero and save you all from it," America confessed.

Romania couldn't help it. He threw his arms around America, "You were my hero," He said, holding Alfred close.

Alfred was left speechless. There were no words in his vocabulary to express how he felt right then. Those words were ones he had never heard, no matter how much he longed to. He'd fought countless wars, stepping in when he saw the weak being trampled upon. He could have just stayed out of them. Many nations, and even his own citizens wanted him to do just that. And yet, he continued to fight for what he believed in. He didn't know any other way. Yet still. Even after all those wars. After all those times he'd fought to defend the defenseless. Never once had he been thanked. Never once had he been called a hero.

(Russia)

Russia headed down the path quickly. He could still hear the footsteps following behind him. He was starting to worry. This hallway was really long, and went straight for quite a ways before he even saw a turn. He was starting to worry. Whoever was behind him, would catch up before he made the turn, but he made it in time. Slipping to the right and the staying very quiet. He didn't hear the footsteps anymore, but that didn't mean he wasn't still being followed. He hurried down the path, he thought it best to put as much distance as he could between them.

This path seemed to stretch on for quite a ways as well, but finally there was a turn, it was just one turn, and it took him to the right again. He hesitated suddenly noticing that in front of him was a door. So, this path had led him to one of the other rooms. He put his ear to the door. No sound came. He cracked the door open, and peeked inside. It was dark and empty. He snuck his way in, closing the door behind him. Darkness surrounded him, and it became clear that he was alone. 'Maybe this would be a good place to hide out for a while,' he thought. Then logic broke through. No. It might work for a little while, but before long, the people from this group would come back. He fumbled around to find the lantern, flicking the light on.

He would stay here for another minute, but then he needed to get moving again, and find somewhere he could hide, and not hurt anyone. He was sick of hurting people. Yet he was a hopeless cause. A natural killer. Born into cold violence and war. Hurting people was the only way he'd managed to survive as nation this long. but he never wanted any of it. If he could have his way, he would simply surround himself with friends.

Now that the lights were on he noticed a few things, first was the pile of weapons the lay untouched in the corner of the room. How foolish! They were unarmed here of all places! Well, they'd soon learn one way or another that that was a mistake.

He shook his head. What was wrong with him! One minute he didn't want to hurt anyone, and the next he was imagining how he could beat them all senseless. He couldn't control himself! It was a natural instinct to want to protect yourself, but protecting himself in the past had demanded much more from him. Now he needed to learn to not take things so life or death. The transition was hard on him.

That's when he noticed the second door in the room. 'So this room had two doors? well that was useful' he thought to himself. 'Now I won't have to go back the way I came!' He headed out the second door.

The tunnel was straight for a while, but not nearly as long as the last one. Eventually it let up into a divergence. One path leading right, and the other one leading left. It was clear that the path leading right, led right back up with the main path, which he'd really rather stay off of. Especially considering how far down he was now. His group was off in that direction, and he really wanted to distance himself from them. he turned left quickly, trying get to a place he could hide as soon as possible.

This path was also very long and straight. It seemed like was going to stretch on forever! With each passing minute, he was becoming increasingly concerned with just how out in the open he was. He didn't want anyone to see him. Not like this. His white-grey coat was splashed with blood. It was a very vibrant red too, against his white coat. If anyone saw him like this, it would give them the wrong idea, and then. He was scared to even think of what he might do.

Finally the path broke off to the left. He could walk a little further if he wanted to, and turn right. But going that way would just lead him closer to his group. Turning left would bring him back up, and maybe towards a place he could hide. He was halfway up the up the path when suddenly someone turned the corner.

Russia's eyes widened, and his entire body stiffened with fear. It was what he feared would happen. Not one but two people were in front of him now, and they were even more terrified of him. And scared people do stupid things. Russia was already fighting to restrain himself. Nothing had even happened, yet he was already preparing for a fight. He reminded himself who they were, and that they hadn't fought any serious wars with him. They weren't close to him either, but they were harmless, and they were innocent. The one on the left was The Netherlands, short blonde slicked up hair and serious demeanor gave him away. And then next to him was Belgium, she was the one with cropped strawberry blonde hair, in a headband.

The Netherlands pushed Belgium behind him, "Anri, get behind me," he ordered her. So her name was Anri? Russia made a mental note of that. "This must be one of the traitors mentioned in the note. Damn Francis for making us go out here unarmed!" The Netherlands cursed quietly at a volume he thought Russia couldn't hear. He stared straight at Russia, eyes glaring with hatred, "Whoever you are leave now. If you take one more step-"

"If I take one more step then what?" Russia laughed smiling. "Ufu, are you going to attack me?"

Belgium and The Netherlands took a startled step back. The Netherlands put his hand in his coat pocket, as if to grab something, "Yes. That's right. We'll attack. And there's two against one. Pick a fight somewhere else," He spoke confidently, and unwaveringly.

Russia internally tried to shake himself. Why didn't he just leave?! They were giving him a clear chance to walk away without having any blood spilled this time. Any yet. They were too easy, and they were trying so hard to hide it. He felt it was like a child's game. Discover your opponents weakness and win. That was how the game was played. Losing was never an option. Losing meant to sacrifice something dear to you. It wasn't his fault they'd turned this into a game he was unable to run away from.

"Oh? You think you can take me? But you're not even armed?" Russia laughed menacingly, "kolkolkolkol, why don't you run, da?"

The Netherlands wasn't going to stand there and listen to this ridicule. He ran over to punch Russia.

"Abel don't!" Belgium yelled after him. Abel's fist was caught mid air, barely phasing Russia.

"Oh, too bad, looks like I blocked you," Russia grinned like a child winning his favorite game, "Now it's my turn, da?"

Abel's eyes widened as he realized he wouldn't be able to block entirely because Russia still held onto his fist. With his free hand Russia swung his pipe down hard onto Abel, knocking him out of his own grasp. Abel hit the ground hard. His head hitting once, and then twice as it rebounded onto the floor. The pipe having crushed three of his ribs.

Blood blossomed around Abel's forehead, and down over his closed right eye. He lifted his head wincing in pain, but still attempting to sit up. Anri called out to him, from around the corner where she was hiding.

"Oh? Is that it? You had so much fight earlier. Is that all it takes to break your spirit?" Russia asked squatting down next to him.

Abel grimaced, making an attempt to swing up at Russia. Russia dodged all too easily. The pipe came strong and heavy onto Abel's stomach, pummeling his internal organs. Abel heaved forward and coughed up a large amount of blood. The internal bleeding alone would kill him in a matter of hours.

"You're not even going to fight back anymore? Aww you're no fun," Russia pouted before lifting the reddened pipe over his head and smashing it down.

Anri let loose a blood curdling scream as the pipe smashed through Abel's face. She leaned back against wall, around the corner. There was no where to run now. The way they came from had led them to a dead end which was why they had turned back this way.

She heard the metal pipe trail behind footsteps, as her killer came closer and closer. There was no way she was going to make it out of this alive. She was unarmed and alone. Up against this THING that had killed Abel! She rubbed at her eyes trying to hide her fear. Maybe she could sneak past him. She had to try right? There was no use in lying down and accepting it. She turned the corner swiftly ready to bolt.

She ran straight into her killer's chest. "Oh, there you are. I thought I'd have to chase you down," He continued to speak in a sing-song voice.

"Noooo!" She screamed in hysteria trying to break free.


	8. Chapter 8

I did it guys! and I even got a headstart on the next one! :D (*so happy right now* ^^)

* * *

(The Nordics)

"It's been at least twenty minutes. Don't you think he should be back by now?" Tino hovered by the door nervously.

"Don't worry he'll be back soon," Lukas said calmly, running a rag over his sword.

"Shouldn't we be trying to find the way out?!" Mathias complained laying on his back in boredom, he suddenly sat up, "He said ten minutes and it's clearly been longer. Can't we go look around now?!"

"If we leave at all it should be to find Alfred and Vladimir!" Emil argued.

"Why?! They can take care of themselves. They're practically group!" Mathias complained.

"We're just going to have to sit and wait," Lukas said without picking up his eyes from his sword.

"But what if they don't come back," Emil said suddenly concerned.

"Don't say that! They're both fine!... They, they have to be," Tino grew increasingly worried as he peeked out of the door, only to see the dark tunnels.

"We've already lost Michelle. What's keeping it from getting Alfred and Vladimir? They both left alone too," Emil complained.

"Then we're better off staying here, as a group, where if anything attacked we could fight together," Lukas reasoned. Calming at least Emil down, if only a little. He was right at least. They were safer if they stayed as a group.

"Who put you in charge anyways?!" Mathias got to his feet, to make a point.

Lukas finally looked up from polishing his weapon; he looked to Berwald, "What's your opinion on this matter?"

Berwald had chosen to be quiet up to this point. Letting them decide which action to take. He would act when needed, but otherwise this issue was not that important to him, "mmh, I think we'd be safer to stay put for now."

"See. Berwald agrees with me," Lukas pointed out, "Just calm down and wait patiently."

"But there's still the majority that thinks we should go!" Mathias continued to whine, he was sick of sitting around. He wanted to explore these walls.

"But you can't even agree on where to go. And we're not splitting up. This isn't a democracy Mathias, it's survival," Lukas was growing tired of Mathias's constant whining.

Mathias, was mad now. He was fed up with this! What was the point of sitting around waiting, when nothing was going to happen?! "Then I call for anarchy!" Mathias pumped his fist in the air, "I'm not gonna sit around and let you decide everything!" He picked up his ax off the ground and stormed off toward the door.

Lukas was now standing, "Don't take a step out that door. I'm not gonna let you lead everyone to their deaths!" Lukas pointed his sword at Mathias.

"Well what about you?! Swinging that sword around all the time! How can we be sure you're not a traitor?!"

"What are you talking about?!" Lukas re-gripped his sword surprised by Mathias's sudden outburst, "We all saw each other's backs! You know none of us are traitors!"

Mathias shook himself. He'd had enough. Everything on his mind came out at once, "But that's just too strange isn't it?! The note said there were traitors but there aren't any. They might have figured out how to hide their marks!" He ignored the drips of tears that began to spill down his face, " Michelle is dead! I'm not gonna sit here and watch it happen again! I'm gonna find a way out of here!"

"Mathias, you need to calm down. We're gonna get out of here. We just need to-" Tino tried to calm him down.

"No I've had enough of this!" Mathias tried to push Tino off, knocking him to the side and unconsciously raising his ax.

Lukas was the most level headed of all of them. He wouldn't attack unless there was a threat. He would try everything to keep that from happening. That being said, he also wouldn't let emotion persuade him in protecting his group. It was better for one person to die and the rest to live, then for for one to live and the rest to die. "Mathias put down your ax before you hurt someone," He demanded.

"No way!" Mathias argued. He wasn't going to throw aside his weapon when Lukas wasn't either.

"Please Mathias. If you'd just calm down," Tino held onto Mathias's right arm trying still trying to get him to calm down. He didn't want to see him get hurt. He'd seen enough people get hurt.

"Get off of me!" He shouted pushing Tino to the ground. Berwald was at his side in moments, picking him back up.

"Mathias I won't warn you again, if you don't lower your weapon-" Lukas stared intently at Mathias with determination.

"If I don't lower my weapon then what?" Mathias cut Lukas off, "You really are a traitor. You really are trying to kill me!" Mathias swung down his ax, aiming for Lukas.

Lukas remained expressionless, but dodged it easily. Then quickly drove his broadsword through Mathias, with as much force as he could muster. The sword went through more easily than he'd expected but not without effort. The Blade stuck into the door behind Mathias, piercing through his heart.

Mathias's face was full of shock as he remained pinned to the wall behind him. He'd. Lost? His Ax fell from his grasp and clanged onto the floor. By that time he was already almost gone. He couldn't bring any air in now. The sword had also pierced his lung. Which burned as blood began to fill and drain from it. His heart gave a lurch before fluttering and dying. The pain that had erupted from the start around each side of his chest soon became his only thought. He began to welcome death as he knew it would take away his pain, and as his mind began to fade, it did.

Tino's scream could probably be heard throughout the tunnel, if it didn't absorb sound the way it did, "You killed him!" He screamed falling to his knees. Berwald picked up his sword and stood between Lukas, and Tino. Lukas, it appeared may be as Mathias feared. Or else he had gone off the deep end. Either way, Berwald felt the need to protect Tino.

Emil, on the other hand could see Lukas's reason. Mathias, was posing himself as a threat. If continued he could have seriously hurt one of them. It was in self defense that Lukas had attacked Mathias, and while he hated to see Mathias lying there dead. He knew there wasn't much choice in the matter. He could see this was turning into a fight, so he snatched up his quills, and his bow, and he went to stand by Lukas. That way he would know where his loyalty lay.

Lukas unsheathed his sword from Mathias's chest, it was crimson red as it came out. Blood had already dripped all the way down Mathias's front, but now it pooled on the floor around him as well, as he landed face first. His back soaking wet with it, but the blood pooled slowly now, as it had grown cold, and there was no heartbeat to pump it out.

Tino's small frame shook, as he saw Mathias's corpse fall to the ground. "He-he's dead," His eyes would not believe the sight before him. He'd had enough of this. It was putting him over the brink of tears. He fumbled the switchblade in his pocket desperately. What was he supposed to do? His humble knife would be useless against Lukas's massive broadsword. Even Emil's bow was more useful! He watched as Emil crossed the room to stand beside Lukas. Tino's eyes widened again, Emil too! They were outnumbered. Two to one, counting himself as useless. He didn't think his blade would even suffice to defend himself!

Berwald looked back at Tino's frightened figure, "Don't worry. I'll protect you," He said simply before facing Lukas. One step was all it would take now for hell to erupt around them.

Lukas looked to Emil, sensing that this was about to turn sour. The tension in the air was unbelievable. He spoke Emil quietly and seriously, "If this comes to battle, I want you to make sure Tino keeps out of it. I'll handle Berwald."

Emil nodded keeping his eyes set on the other two that looked to them with eyes of hatred and disgust. He would do as Lukas said in battle. He could sense that Lukas was naturally skilled at it. So while he didn't like the thought of him going against Berwald by himself, he would obey.

Lukas tried to judge just how bad the situation was by pretending to go back to the way things were, "We all just need to calm down, and wait here until Alfred get's back," He said taking a deep breath.

"I don't think we can wait that long. There is a danger right here in the room with us," Berwald said monotonously as he looked in Lukas's direction.

Lukas answered in the same manner, "So you mean to kill me?"

Berwald nodded once, "Mmhm."

Lukas was angry, but he didn't let it show. He hoped they would have been better than this. That they could have moved past this. But he could see why they were bitter. He closed his eyes centering himself, "I won't make the first move. That honor belongs to you Berwald."

Berwald nodded acknowledging his choice. He was still trying to play the good guy. But he had just murdered Mathias in front of them in cold blood. He wasn't going to wait until he tried the same thing on Tino. Berwald charged him head on.

Lukas motioned for Emil to get in position as he did. He was hoping this would have ended better. But now it seemed he would be fighting his friends. If it had been them against just him he would have left. Better to sacrifice himself then everyone else. But Emil had chosen to trust him, so that made them split evenly. His side in this fight had already been decided for him. All he could do was carry out as destiny had predetermined.

Two blades clanged loudly as they clashed together. The force of them allowing the sound to carry throughout the room. Berwald pressed his hand dangerously on the back of his blade to give it more pressure. The blade pressed closer to Lukas's throat. Although from this angle it would be more of a disarming blow, than a deadly one.

Lukas dodged this troubling attack, by slipping under and around the blades while maintaining his force on them. Then all at once drew his blade back close to him. Berwald stumbled forward, and barely had enough time to turn around and counter the attack.

It sounded like thunder. Berwald clearly had the upperhand when it came to pure strength, but Lukas was more skilled and strategic. The way it was now, they were an even match.

Tino watched on as more fighting continued to happen around him. He just wanted it to stop. They'd lost too much already. Berwald fell to his knees. Tino was suddenly concerned for him. He took a step forward to help him up. He was greeted by the sound of bow strings.

"Don't move. Stay where you are or I'll shoot," Emil warned, from half the distance between him and Lukas.

He froze watching on in fear as he was helpless. He couldn't fight. He couldn't do anything!

Berwald stood up again but just barely in time, Lukas's blade made contact with his shoulder sleeve. He pulled away but not before a nice slice in his arm was left. Berwald countered, using the pain to fuel him forward. He managed to at least knick Lukas's coat before his sword was blocked. Lukas was getting slower. His heart just wasn't into fighting. Too much longer and the fight would be over.

"You know it didn't have to end like this Berwald. You even agreed with me back there that we were much safer if we stayed here," Lukas tried to reason with him using his already fleeting thread of hope. There was no way this fight could go on for much longer. One way or another it was going down from here on. He at least wanted to know that he'd tried.

"I don't think it really is safe here anymore. It's too dangerous. And there's someone I must protect," Berwald answered him, honestly, shoving him to the ground for once.

Lukas figured it would go this way. At least he could feel safe in knowing he tried. He swung at Berwald's legs knocking him to the ground Berwald fell, as they both bled profusely from the angle they were cut at.

They stung more than he could imagine. Enough so, that his head was numbed by it. He couldn't see himself standing again, the muscle in at least his right leg had been torn through. He chose instead to swing at Lukas's legs.

Lukas dodged easily. Unfortunately now he knew what his next move had to be. It was the only way to end this. He swung down his blade. The force of it slicing through Berwald's skull.

He didn't even have time to realize what had happened. Sharp pain shot through the top of his head. It was instantaneous and then there was nothing at all. He had a fleeting thought to try and fight against it, but he was dead before he could even finish that thought.

Tino screamed. Lukas's sword with drew itself from Berwald's skull, stiffly. Making a cracking sound as it did. Berwald fell onto his back, his eyes glazed over as he seemed to look to Tino. Tino curled up in a ball. No. No, this couldn't be happening. Not him too! He couldn't lose them! Tino pulled the tiny switchblade out of his pocket. He couldn't do anything with this. He couldn't save them!

As he pulled the blade out of his pocket it caught Emil's eye. He reset his bow just in case.

Tino heard the sound of the bow being pulled and turned to see Emil setting his arrows on him. In that moment he snapped. The calm and caring Tino, at least for the moment, he was gone. It was their fault! They caused all of this! Tears started to betray him, but he ignored them. He wouldn't fall. He wanted revenge. After all of this, they must be traitors! They deserved whatever hell he sent them to.

It didn't matter that he was small, and only had a small pocket knife. His anger would fuel him. He glared intently at Emil, before charging. Emil looked genuinely surprised. He managed to shoot only one arrow before Tino had crossed the distance. The arrow hit right into Tino's right thigh. The pain almost had him doubled over. But he refused to let the pain show. Any sign of weakness here could mean his life. He yanked it out with a good tug, and then continued running toward Emil. The pain from pulling it out was even worse, but he barely grimaced as he did it.

Emil's shock was evident in the way he acted. He barely managed to defend himself as Tino swung the blade at him.

Lukas tried to step in now. Putting his sword between the two of them when he could. But the fight kept moving. Tino kept on his toes, and in positions, where If Lukas missed, he would hit a vital organ of Emil's. That alone kept him out of the fight for now.

Emil abandoned his bow. They were at too close a range for him to effectively fight with it. He pulled out another arrow. It wouldn't be any more effective than Tino's knife, but at least it would help a bit with self defense.

Tino darted the blade toward Emil's throat. It was soon caught though, by Emil's arrow. The wood splintered and broke, leaving him openly defenseless again. Tino jumped to the side as he could see Lukas trying to land a blow again. His mind was on automatic. All that mattered was surviving. His small figure was so filled with rage it blinded him, and startled his enemies.

He went back and forth quite a few times. The same steps repeating again and again, as they found no way to both change and live. Emil reached for another quill. It didn't come as quickly this time and he grew scared. He turned to look behind him, and realized he was out. He turned back, just in time to see the knife coming down on him. Emil tripped backward trying to get out of the way, and fell onto his back. He tried to get back up, but he didn't have time to act. Tino was on top of him. His eyes brimmed with pain and anger. He was remorseless as he drove the knife down, slitting Emil's throat.

The initial cut was sharp and deep. The blade was somewhat dull, so it brutally tore at his throat until it opened. Emil gagged, and attempted to scream. The noise that came out was unnatural. Broken and sharp. He could taste blood in his mouth. As he spat it out. It rushed down his chest, and into his lungs. That sent him into a coughing fit as the blood itched and burned its way all the way down and began to fill up. His breathing became ragged and shallow. If it wasn't hard enough to breath with a tear in his throat, add his lungs filling up with blood on top of it. He soon ran out of energy to fight it. the panic wore down when he did. His mind grew fuzzy from lack of air. And then there was silence.

Tino felt a surge go through him as he watched Emil gag on his own blood. He'd just killed him! He should feel relieved. That was in a way his goal right? But there was nothing like that. There was guilt. There was fear. And there was adrenaline. He was terrified out of his mind! He wanted to break down and cry. He wanted to fall asleep and wake up to have this all be over. But there was no such compassion.

Lukas watched as Tino attacked Emil. This was his chance. right now Tino was exposed. But he needed to be careful. If he struck his too hard, he could end up hurting Emil. Lukas's sword was in full swing just as Emil's throat was brutally torn open. It came down onto Tino's back hard. Piercing about three inches into it. Compared to earlier though, Lukas was being gentle.

Tino still doubled over, falling just left of Emil. The sword pulling out of him as he did. Tino breathed heavily for a moment. Overcome with pain. He gritted his teeth. The pain helped him though. 'This is why I'm fighting!' He reminded himself. He was fueled by anger and pain. He picked himself up just in time to be struck again by Lukas's broadsword. It hit him across his good arm, leaving a deep gash that continuously dripped blood. Tino wavered only slightly. He summed up all his anger at once, shouting in anger as he drove straight forward to attack Lukas.

Lukas moved to the side, but Tino was quick, and moved almost simultaneously. This startled Lukas and made him doubt himself, leaving Tino just enough time to get in range. Tino stabbed Lukas in the gut. The small switchblade sinking itself up to the hilt. Lukas's eyes widened in shock. the stabbing pain erupted deep within his core shattering him. His hand quivered as he found his way back to holding his sword. This fight wasn't over yet. He wasn't going to just keel over. Not when he still had the will to fight.

Tino hurt everywhere. His body had started to go numb already. He'd lost so much blood in his desperate attempt to avenge his fallen comrades. The world felt cold. Was it over? Could he be done now? He just wanted to lie down someplace warm. Just lie there for a little while. Was it too much to ask?

Lukas managed to take a step forward. Tino seemed to be in a daze. Good. that would make this easier. With the last of his remaining strength Lukas jutted his sword forward. Ringing it through Tino's midsection. In his exhaustion, it didn't have nearly the effect he wanted it to. The blade didn't even come close to stabbing through as deep as Tino's knife had. It went in maybe an inch to two inches deep at most.

Tino screamed, as he was brought more agony. Tears lept from his eyes. He couldn't take it anymore! Before he grew used to the additional pain. he clenched the blood soaked knife in his hand. gripping it. Lukas was dazed and barely aware. If he was quick. It would be over now. Tino brought up the glistening knife turned dagger, and brought it down onto Lukas with the force of his entire body.

The blade pierced his heart. That's where it hurt the most. He barely had time to register the pain of the knife entering his body. blood swelled quickly around the knife in his chest. It stopped pumping. His head began to grow fuzzy and he fell. His head hit the ground with a hard crack, and blood swept up along the base of his head as well. His heart lurched around the knife from the impact cutting him up badly. He went limp, and the pain suddenly disappeared, with his consciousness.

Lukas was gone. Tino looked around the room falling to his knees. His world had fallen to ruin. Blood and malice surrounded him. He fell to his knees. He was already almost gone. He felt cold... And numb... And alone. He no longer hurt at least. He was past that.

He opened his eyes, as he lay on the floor. His vision was blurry, but the entire floor seemed to be soaked with blood from here. His breathing was growing shallow. A-and his heart hurt. But he couldn't tell if it was because it was running out of blood to pump or. Because he was sad. All around him. Everyone. They were all dead! Such malice consumed his frail body. He would cry. He wanted to. So very badly. But he could barely bring himself to continue breathing. He closed his eyes. Maybe now he could sleep peacefully.

(China)

China turned the corner, and stopped to catch his breath. Damn it! Where had he gone! He was too old for this! He sighed leaning against the wall he was tired of running after Russia. Could he just stay put? The trail was getting hard to follow now. Oh well, where could he go? They were trapped inside this maze, one way or another he'd find him. He just hoped he found him before someone else did.

Suddenly China noticed the sound of footsteps.

Prussia walked down the hallway toward his group. This was so boring! Why did he ever agree to make that bet with Hungary? This was so stupid! He kicked the air. It was too late now though. He had a lot riding on this.

He jumped, losing his train of thought as China suddenly popped out in front of him. China seemed to relax after a second or two, "Oh it's just you aru."

"China? What are you doing way over here? Isn't your group that way?" Prussia pointed to the area near the entrance. He wasn't going to say anything, but he was trying to be serious! These were the kind of things you asked when being serious right? Seemed like something his brother would notice. Honestly, his little brother needed to loosen up sometimes! He was more serious than Hungary was!

China shook his head, debating how much he should tell him. Probably not best to let him know Russia had killed someone, but... "Russia ran off this way aru. He was just ahead of me a few minutes ago, but now I can't find him. Have you seen him aru?"

Prussia tried to think. It would be good points if he was helpful, but he really hadn't seen anyone. he shook his head, "Sorry, I haven't seen much of anyone. I was just about to check back with my group."

China tried to hide his immediate shock and fear, so that would mean that Prussia was from that group he just passed. And that. Would mean that he's from the same group as Poland. "W-Well, then I guess I'd better get going aru. Who knows where he is now? right aru?"

Prussia missed it, or else China was doing a good job of keeping it secret. "Yeah. Probably should, " Prussia looked boredly in the direction of his group's room. Time to get back to work, "See ya, around, " He said passing China on the turn.

China took a breath of relief when he passed. He had some time yet, but he needed to find Russia soon. Before someone else decided to come after him. He turned right, onto the main path. It was a long walk, but he was pretty sure he saw something off in the distance. The main path was lighter than the others so it was much easier to see that far away.

As he got closer he realized exactly what he'd found. Blood stained the ground in this spot. Not much of it, but enough to let him know he was in the right area. There asn't really any sure sign it was Russia but he had a feeling. The blood trail died there. He was on his own from then on. He'd just have to keep an eye and an ear out for him. He turned down the the next turn.

(Micronations)

Peter hung close to the door, "Where is he?" He kept asking, "The rest of were back hours ago! He should be back by now!"

"Quiet down already!" Anaise complained, "For one thing Leopold and Marcello only got back five minutes ago. And for another. We know already! We'll go look for him in another ten minutes or something okay?"

"Shouldn't he be back already though? What if something happened!" Peter whined.

"Fine! if you want to go look for him so badly go yourself!" Anaise argued. She was sick of putting up with him always getting his way. He was so immature and childish!

"I will then!" Peter said, annoyed that no one else wanted to help. Or thought it was important. He stormed out of the room.

"Is it really ok to let him leave like that?" Leopold asked, nervously.

"He's fine. Watch He'll be back as soon as he's cleared his head. I give him ten minutes tops. Then we'll all be back and we can discuss another search party," Anaise said decidedly.

Peter stormed out of the room. If no one wanted to help him look. Fine! He would go by himself. This place sounded dangerous, so he was going to make sure everyone of them made it out in one piece.

He turned right, at the break in the path, the direction Niklas had gone. At the end of the path, it opened up into a long hallway. Well, that would at least explain why he wasn't back yet. What way could he have gone though? He looked to the right, seeing that it led to a dead end he decided he'd take the other path. He wondered just how far Niklas could have taken it. Then he saw that just barely in his line of sight there was a figure. He ran to catch up with it.

(Romania)

"We need to get back. The others are waiting for us," Alfred said coming hesitantly back to his senses. He knew he still had responsibilities, but he didn't really want to leave just yet. Weird as that may seem.

Vladimir looked a little disappointed, but he understood. It was important after all, "I know."

America stood up, and stretched. His body felt weird. Slightly stiff, but it also had that clean and fresh feeling that you get after a long bath. He wondered just how long he'd been gone. The others were probably very worried by now. It took him ten minutes just to find Vladimir. "Dude, how long was I gone anyways? I told them ten minutes they're probably panicking like crazy!' America laughed.

Romania admired how carefree he was able to be. He smiled along with him, "It wasn't too long... Actually Hungary helped me bring you back a few minutes after you died," He looked away ashamed. He had to rely on Hungary to help him, fix his mistakes. What had the world come to? He didn't allow himself to cry. Not in front of Alfred. He seemed to have forgiven him, that was enough. He didn't completely understand why, but he supposed it didn't matter. He turned and smiled back at Alfred, showing his braver side.

"Hungary was here? Huh. I thought she was in a group like, way over there or something," America continued obliviously.

"No, actually she's right-" He turned to face her. At the very least he should thank her. She helped him in one of his darkest moments. And while he wished she'd never seen it. She'd actually helped him, "Oh. I guess she must have left already," Vladimir said with a sudden realization.

America shrugged, "She probably has to get back to her group too."

They turned the corner and headed back to their group. The path was long, but they walked quickly. America insisted that he was sure he was just being paranoid, but that he did say ten minutes, so he wanted to be back as soon as possible to be safe. So the long walk became a shorter one, but in that time Vladimir managed to find out that America knew very little of world history. Everything that happened before he was born he knew little if anything about, and unless it was a recent event he probably didn't remember it. His knowledge of world history actually surprised Romania. He knew so little it was almost sad. He decided that one day he was going to help teach him history properly. It also explained though, why America wasn't surprised that Hungary had helped him. He asked Alfred how she knew how to revive someone, and Alfred explained that they were both from the previous experiment and that they were both told how.

"So you also know how to bring someone back?" Romania asked, trying to get back into the loop.

Alfred laughed, "Yeah dude. It's like I told you, I understand everything that's going on... Except where that damn exit is!"

Vladimir started to laugh with him. They were almost back now, if he had any more questions he needed to ask them now... That's where his train of thought was heading. That was before something disturbingly familiar came rushing through him.

He stopped dead in his tracks startled by his sudden discovery. The sweet smell hung thickly in the air. He wasn't hungry anymore, but that didn't mean the smell of it didn't excite his senses.

"Vlad? What is it?" America looked at him with concern.

Vladimir grabbed his hand and dragged him along, as he began to walk much faster. Alfred had switch between a run and a walk to keep up. Vladimir shook his head, "I can smell blood," He muttered.

Alfred's eyes widened. "You don't think?" He started to say but cut himself off. He was suddenly very worried. He'd been concerned earlier that they might have wandered off, but this...

"I don't know. But we'd better get their quickly," Romania shook his head. The smell only grew stronger as they grew closer. His senses weren't quite as sharp as they'd been when he was hungry, but the scent was even stronger than when they'd found Seychelles. The worried him. He shouldn't be able to smell it so strongly... and it only got stronger as they reached the door.

America yanked the door open as they got there without saying a word. The corpses of five nations lay on the ground. Blood soaking the earth beneath them. Vladimir barely got a good look at it before he had to turn around. He held His breath, something he could do for quite a long time, and leaned against the wall. There was too much. He could not deal with this!

America looked into the room in horror. What the hell happened?! Denmark lay dead right in the doorway. From the injury it looked like he'd been stabbed with a sword.

He stepped over Denmark to stand in the center of the room. His eyes widened with fear. He still couldn't speak. He was still too in shock. He looked at all their injuries. And then at their own weapons. The pieces snapped together, "They fucking killed each other!" He shook his head fighting tears. What the hell man! He had not been expecting this. Nothing like this! He would have never imagined.

"Damn it!" He cursed leaving the room. He'd failed this time. In his haste to bring Romania back, he'd left them vulnerable. Apparently to themselves.

He shut the door as he left the room. He couldn't stand in that room anymore, it was like walking into a nightmare. Alfred rubbed away tears from under his glasses. "They're all dead!" He pounded his first against the door, sliding down to sit in front of it. He sat in his fetal position with his head between his knees.

"Alfred, how are we supposed to bring them back if they're all dead?" Romania asked, wondering if there was another way for it to work when they were all dead.

America hadn't thought that far yet. He was still reeling from their deaths. It didn't matter though. It wasn't going to work, "No. I-It only works if at least one of them was still alive. But their all dead!" America ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Isn't there anything. A failsafe? Something?" Romania asked. The level of blood in the air was clouding his thought process, he wasn't sure he was much help at all.

America started to shake his head. Then stopped. "Wait. There. There might be something. She said she was listening. OK Alice there's something I need. I need to know how to revive them because right now we look pretty hopeless," he said looking up at the ceiling. She did say if they needed anything all they had to do was ask.

"What was that?" Romania asked confused.

"Before we came in here Alice said if we needed anything we just had to ask for it. I'm hoping she'll tell me."

"So you can talk to her?!" Romania asked.

"Well, no. But she has cameras in here, she's watching us all the time. So she can hear us. In the experiment I was in. She'd send notes."

America stood up and paced the hallway a bit. Then checked behind the door in the room. Nothing.

"What is it?" Romania asked.

"Agh! There's still nothing there! It shouldn't take this long!" Alfred whined. "I'm gonna take another look inside. I don't know, maybe I can find someway to FIX this, this time," He closed the door behind him. The way things were. This time things were looking pretty bleak.

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And we'll see but I think I can get the next one up by next friday again. :D I've had more time to work now that my time isn't divided by translating a song. XD ~ Please Review!~ I love hearing your thoughts on the story! It's my favorite part of sharing it! (Of course I love writing it just for myself too...) 3


	9. Chapter 9

Alright! . new chapter! :D There will be one more this month, that I am working on now. And I am sorry to say that It will be the last until december. Unless some miracle happens and I finish the 50,000 word novel I have to wait and write all in the month of november, then the earliest you will hear from me is the first week of november. the next one is great and I can't wait for you guys to read! . thought I'd end off the month on an epic note. see you next **Thursday! October 31st.**

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(Ladonia)

Ladonia was just about to turn back onto the hall leading to his group when he got the message. It flashed on all the security cameras, so basically it was like waving your hand like crazy in his face. He groaned turning around and heading back toward the entrance. He didn't go all the way there, he didn't need to just far enough away from his groups door. He closed his eyes and disappeared from the place he stood. Then opened them and reappeared in Alice's office. It took him some getting used to changing the place where he manifested his presence, but over the years he had gotten used to it. He discovered it was easiest to close his eyes and reopen them where he imagined.

He slouched over the chair in her office, "What do you want now! I just reported in a minute ago! My group is expecting me back by now!"

She gave him a meaningless sympathetic smile, "Sorry. Something unexpected came up. I need you to deliver a message."

"So I'm the messenger boy now? Hell no! Deliver it yourself,"He complained. Why should he have to? This was supposed to an important mission, not a bunch of arons!

She looked irritated, "I can't. That's why I need you to do it."

"And what if don't?" he retorted. He wasn't going to let her bully him into doing everything.

"Then I will remove you from this experiment and you can just go home," she threatened.

"Fine," He gave in, this had better be important.

"It is. We had a whole group of people kill each other off. And I need to tell America how to bring them back. The letter explains it. And it's addressed to him, by his human name, and room number. Figure out a way to get it to him this letter, without explaining what you know," She handed him the letter.

"Room four?! Are you kidding me?! That's on the opposite side of the maze! My group is already suspicious! Come on Alice cut me some slack here!" He whined.

She smiled, "you're smart I'm sure you can figure it out. When you go back I'll try and transport you closer to their room. How's that?"

"Come on! You know I can't explain this!" He complained, this was going to be difficult.

She smiled, and waved with her left hand while she pressed a button on her keyboard with her other hand, "Bye!"

"Alice!" He yelled before being pulled back onto the path.

Suddenly the room had changed. His head spun for a second as he suddenly woke up, standing on the path. It was disorienting. He hated being popped in and out of places of whim. Other people thought it was cool, and maybe it was, but it was also kind of scary. He felt like he had no control of himself.

He shook his head. No reason to think about that now. It wasn't a big deal. It's just the way it was. He looked at the note. How was he going to explain this one?

He check the cameras to see what had happened while he was gone. Apparently his group had gotten really nervous. They sent Sealand out to collect him. He fucked down the next turn. He'd take the long way. Maybe scare him off his trail. He didn't have to turn around to see that he was being followed the cameras did that work for him. He specifically chose this path as it would avoid running into anyone. Prussia it seemed was heading the other way, that would buy him some time. He turned right. He flinched suddenly remembering that this path also led to the place where Seychelles had died. It was different up close. It was scary to see on the monitor, but up close...

He shook his head. He had to keep moving. Maybe a sight like this would even scare Seal and off. Then he could go back to his job. Stupid Alice! Didn't she realize the bind she'd put him in?!

He followed the path on the right back up towards the crossroads that led to the fourth room. From the look of the surveillance cameras Sealand had gotten a bit lost after he turned. He thought that should by him enough time to at least deliver the message.

Finally he turned left. This way took way longer than the other, but at least it got Peter off his trail. Now how was he going to give Alfred the letter without explaining why he had it in the first place?

"Who's there?" Romania called turning his head to see someone walking down towards them.

Crap! So sneaking it under the door and running was out. He thought fast, "I'm not a traitor I swear!" He started. Oh yeah, like he was going to believe that after just hearing him say it, "I-I'm just looking for room four! I found this note at the other end of the main tunnel, and it's addressed to here. Are you Alfred?" He threw in falsely identifying him for good measure. He was standing in front the door now. Almost done. Then he could go back and try and explain his absence to the rest of his group. Oh great that would be fun! His life sucked.

"No, I'm not Alfred. He's inside." Romania stopped he probably shouldn't let some kid see all of this. What was a kid doing here anyways?! "If you give it to me. I'll make sure he gets it."

Ladonia wasn't going to fall for it. He probably shouldn't care, but the letter was addressed to Alfred. And the contents of it were full of things others shouldn't know. "No, It's addressed to Alfred. And I want to make sure that the right person gets it," He clutched the paper.

"Then let me get him for you," Vladimir said trying to sneak through the door, as if he could shield Ladonia from seeing what was inside.

Ladonia rolled his eyes, he could already see what was inside from the cameras. He opened the door and walked passed Romania. He didn't even blink at the sight, but instead stepped right over Denmark and made his way over to America.

America looked up surprised by the newcomer. "Who are -" He broke off as he was handed a piece of paper. He read it over once then looked up, "Where did you get this?"

Ladonia shrugged, "it was by the other end of the main path. It has this room and - your name? - On it."

America was relieved. This was what he'd been looking for. He could actually save them! They weren't lost!

"So yeah. That's all I had to share. Bye," he started to leave.

"Wait, what's your name?" America asked. He didn't recognize this kid. What was he doing here anyways? It was ridiculous for a kid to be caught up in this mess!

Ladonia thought about it. It's not like he had any reason not answer, "It's Niklas Oxenstierna."

Oxenstierna. Oxenstierna. The last name repeated familiarly in his head. He looked to Sweden. Berwald Oxenstierna. That's why it was so familiar. "Oxenstierna," America fumbled over the name, "This is Berwald. He has the same last name. Are you two related?"

Ladonia shrugged, "I guess, I mean he's my dad."

"I'm so sorry. This must be hard for you. Don't worry though, we're gonna bring him back," America attempted to comfort Niklas.

"How do you know he's your father?" Romania asked inquisitively.

"Honestly I don't care. He got himself in this mess he can get himself out," he answered america heading for the door. He stopped by Romania, "and you can shut up!"

"Oh and real quick. Alice was going to make you figure this out yourselves but... the two your looking for are Lukas, and Tino," he changed his mind, he didn't care if this opened a can of worms. It was working against what Alice wanted, which felt like sweet revenge to him. It was worth it.

"Hold on a second! How do you know all this?!" America tried to ask running after him. He stepped outside only to find that the hallway was empty. Where the hell did he go?!

He stepped back in, "He's gone."

Vladimir looked uncomfortable inside the room. The scent was intoxicating. He craved the taste of it. Which of course wasn't good. "Let's just hurry up and bring them back now. OK?" He reminded America.

America shook his head, "You're right. That should be our priority," he read over the note again. It read as follows:

'To: Alfred, room 4

I'm just answering your question from earlier. Like I said. Ask me if you need anything. You need information? Here you go. If the other five in your group killed each other. Bringing them back should be fairly simple. Providing they regret their actions now, this should work. As the original method dictates. Injury each of them with their own weapon. And have them spell out the words 'forgive me' in their own blood. If they both manage to do this... and they both regret killing each other. Then this should work. The time it takes however might vary.

Sincerely,

~~~ A'

This was going to get complicated real fast. Whoever this Nikolas was, he needed to thank him. 'The who' was conveniently left out of Alice's explanation. He thought about how the spell was set up. Why did it have to be so goddamn bloody! His eyes darted to Vladimir who stood just barely in the doorway. His eyes were wide, and he held himself stiff and straight. America recognized just how uncomfortable Romania was, "So maybe it'd be better if you waited outside?" Alfred suggested.

"I-I think you're right. I'll just be out here if you need anything," Romania let out a sigh of relief, stepping outside and closing the door behind him. The smell was still strong there, but less so. He wasn't hungry anymore, but the smell was still very tempting. He wasn't entirely sure of his self control. He probably could control himself, it wasn't the first time he needed to. In the past he had to learn it many times over. But that also meant sometimes he hadn't been completely in control. He didn't want this to be one of those times. He walked a few meters from the room and sat down. He controlled his breathing to a minimum and remained as still as possible.

America sat down next to Lukas. Alright him first. He picked up Lukas's broadsword and used it to cut his hand. The blade was sharp but he found it hard to cut him. This was so weird! Blood welled in the bowl of Lukas's hand once it was cut. It didn't drip however like it would if his blood was actually pumping. It was a grim reminder.

Alfred balled Lukas's hand into a fist, and drew the words 'Forgive me' in blood. Halfway through the first word blood stopped dripping. He wondered if it was because Lukas had already lost too much, or because the blood had no way of reaching his hand. Alfred shook his head, it was too weird for him to be thinking like that. He tried again on Lukas's other hand. More blood pooled. This time he propped up Lukas's limp arm to get a better angle. It was one of the most awkward situations he'd ever been in. And one he never wanted to be in again.

After carefully applying the little blood he could get out of Lukas into those two words He moved on to Tino. Tino looked even paler. He had to search to find the weapon Tino had. He finally found the tiny dagger clutched in Tino's grasp. Alfred pried it out of his fingers. He then applied the same steps to Tino. The blade this time was much harder to use. It was dull, which meant it required force to use. And Tino had lost a lot more blood than Lukas had. By the time he managed to write the words, Tino had cuts on both his hands and, in Alfred's desperation. On his ankles.

A light began to glow as he finished the phrase. It was bright, and carried over the words and to them as well. As it did, their skin regained a healthy color, and the injuries they had inflicted on one another disappeared. The cuts used to bring them back however, remained.

The light faded after a moment and then there was stirring. "Ah," Tino mumbled as if waking up. He suddenly sat straight up. Wincing as he moved his feet. Lukas was waking up to he looked around the room in shock.

"Lukas? What happened?" Tino asked as he tried to remember. Then what happened came back to him. The fighting, people dying. And then it worked backward. All the way until they had first woken up here. And then even further. Back to that night, and then the night before. The a week before. Then a year before... Then centuries. It all came back in a moment.

America smacked them both on the back of their heads, "I'll tell you what happened! I leave for ten minutes and you all go and kill each other! Do you know the hell I had to go through to bring you back?!"

"America? What are you doing here? You weren't with us when-" He broke off as something a bit more troubling dripped down his arm, "And why do I have all these cuts?!"

"I guess you can remember too then. I'll explain everything later. But first I need you to help bring back the others. Sorry about the cuts. It was how I was able to bring you guys back," America suddenly got up to go rummage through the pile of things they had in the corner of the room, "I'll get the first aid kit."

"How are we supposed to bring the others back?!" Finland asked, fear rising in his voice. He hurt so much already!

"I think I might know. We went over something briefly like this in the magick club. That was a long time ago though," Lukas mentioned.

America continued as if he hadn't heard him, "The way Alice explained it, was that the person who killed them had to regret doing it, and write the words 'forgive me' in their blood from the weapon they used to kill them."

Norway nodded, "That sounds about the same."

"Aha! I found them!" Alfred shouted raising a thing of gauze into the air.

He wrapped Tino's injuries first because he had more to wrap. The color shown through the bandage even after the wounds were wrapped. Tino trembled as the bandage wrapped tight against his broken skin.

"Sorry," America mumbled, as he continued to wrap Tino's injuries, "It was the only way to bring you both back."

Finland shook his head, "No, I-It's alright. Thank you."

"there," America said as he finished wrapping Finlands hand. He moved to start wrapping Lukas's hands as well.

"Just this one. I still need the other to bring back Sweden and Denmark," He said holding up his left hand.

"You killed BOTH of them?!" America asked with shock. Although he really shouldn't be. They had all killed each other. So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that they had killed more than one person. But three people?! Really?! It must have been some fight!

Norway nodded, "Yeah. Let's Not let that happen again?"

"Agreed," Finland sighed, standing up. He almost fell down immediately, as pain spread around his ankles. He winced from the pain losing his balance momentarily, but managed to remain upright. He then proceeded to force himself to walk. He knelt beside Emil, "We just have to write the words right?" He asked for clarification.

"Yes. Just the phrase 'forgive me', in blood. The injuries we have are from our own weapons so they will work," Norway answered him, as America finished wrapping his hand. He stood up to kneel by Berwald.

Tino did as he was told. Unfortunately that meant unwrapping the bandage around one of his hands. He unwound the cloth from his right hand stretching it to reopen the wound. It stung like hell. Why did they even start this fight? It all seemed pointless now. Although as he remembered it, he remembered feeling so frightened and unsure. And as if this was the only possible outcome. Now he couldn't see why they fought in the first place. He felt awash with guilt. A lot of how this went down he blamed on himself. If he'd spoken up here. Or hadn't said anything there. Most importantly. If he'd remained calm through this whole ordeal, things would have turned out differently.

The words he'd written below began glow a brilliant, and radiant white light. As it faded, Iceland began to stir. He slowly opened his purple eyes to see Tino staring back at him. "Tino?" He asked in confusion, before his mind caught up with him, "What is-"

Tino hugged him, apologizing for... earlier, "I'm sorry I'm not really sure what happened.

Iceland shook his head, "It's fine. We were all acting kind of strangely. Let's just leave it behind us," Emil decided. That was probably for the best. The other way led to grudges. And grudges led to wars. They didn't need to start another war. Not when this was all clearly a big mistake.

Finland nodded in agreeance.

"Hey, finland it looks like Sweden is about to wake up," Norway called him over, knowing he'd want to see him as soon as he was up.

Berwald opened his eyes slowly. blinking at first. he looked up to see Tino staring back at him, holding his hand. "Are you okay?" Finland asked him.

Sweden nodded slowly, as he recalled everything that had happened, "mmhm."

Tino smiled brightly, lighting up his day, "Alfred made it back and managed to find a way to bring us all back."

"Ah! What the hell happened!?" Mathias yelled from across the room, picking himself up.

"You were being an idiot. That's what happened. Got the rest of us killed," Lukas answered him.

"You fucking killed me!" Denmark accused norway, but there wasn't a trace of surprise in his voice, "Damn! You know that really hurt!"

Norway sighed, "You wouldn't be here if I wasn't sorry. Come on we've got a lot of catching up to do. America was just about to explain what's going on," He looked to America who was waiting by the door.

"I'll explain in a minute, I gotta tell Vlad it's safe to come in now," America scooted around the door.

"So you did actually find him?" Finland asked.

"Yeah... he just got lost was all. And then I get back to find you guys like this!" He tried to cover up what actually happened. It's not like it involved them. They really had no business in it. It was a private matter between the two of them.

"America... There's blood on the collar of your shirt," Norway pointed out. He knew Romania from back in their school days. They had been in the magick club together. Little things like this did not get passed him easily.

Alfred blushed a shade of red. The spell could make their injuries disappear, and revive them, but their clothes remained torn or stained, "I-I I-It was. it was when I was trying to bring you two back. It must have happened then," He quickly left the room before they noticed anything else.

Norway found it extremely unlikely, but he didn't pry. He dropped the subject... for now at least. Maybe later he'd see what he could get out Vladimir. The two of them were hiding something. He wanted to know what.

America sighed in relief as he closed the door behind him. "Vlad?" Alfred asked walking over to where Vladimir sat.

Vladimir looked up. He was calm now. In complete control, but it made him slow to move and react. The meditation helped immensely, but it could only go so far. He smiled as Alfred walked over.

"We got everyone back now, you can come in," Alfred pointed to the door.

Romania shook his head, but stood up anyways, "I don't think I should," The scent of blood was still fresh, and it had only grown stronger since they had gotten here. He could control himself, but even he had his limits.

America looked at vladimir with concern, "Are you still hungry? Cause if you are-" He tipped his head to the side. He worried about Romania, and as much as it scared him, he wanted to make sure he was ok. He wasn't going to let him sit there and suffer, or be outcasted. Not when there was something he could do.

Vladimir pulled him into a hug, burying his face against Alfred's neck. Alfred tensed, readying himself for the bite. It never came. Instead soft words whispered into his ear, "I'm fine just like this. Just the sound of your heartbeat is enough for me."

Vladimir listened blissfully, as he heard Alfred's heart flutter. It made his do the same. He could never hurt Alfred. He refused to drink from him again. No matter how much he liked the taste of his blood. Alfred was too special.

"Alright you love birds wrap it up. We've got stuff to get to," Norway stood from the doorway, arms folded. Well now he knew what they were hiding. Apart from the fact that they were gushing over each other. It also seemed that Alfred had fed Romania recently. Which would explain the blood on the collar of his shirt. The exact order of events he wasn't sure of, but that wasn't too important.

Alfred and Vladimir jumped, at Lukas's sudden presence. "I-I, We were just," America blushed scarlet red, and found himself unable to answer the question at the moment.

"Save it. We have more important matters," he responded to Alfred. Then he turned to talk to Vladimir, "Romania, do you remember back in school? When we went over healing spells in the magick club?"

"Ah, yes? What about them?" Romania asked stepping forward one step. Why bring this up now?

"Do you remember the one that one would heal minor injuries as well as cleaning up the cause of them?" He waited for Romania to nod, "well we could use it now, to get rid of all this blood. Between the two of us it shouldn't be too difficult."

Vladimir suddenly thought, 'what a waste of blood', but then instantly felt guilty. He shouldn't feel that way. It was vulgar. It was a good idea. Get rid of the blood, and would help him to stay more in control. "That's a good idea. Remind me how the spell works again?"

"Unfortunatly. You're going to have to come to the center of the room with me. We can then create a diagram in the center to focus our energy on. you remember the words don't you?" Norway asked him.

Vladimir nodded, performing the spell he might not remember so clearly, but he always remembered words. When the time came to perform the spell he would have it clear in his mind. He was much more concerned with the fact that he was about to enter a room that was covered with blood, with a friend of his whose hands were currently bleeding, "J-Just tell everyone else to leave while we're working on the spell okay?"

Norway shook his head, "unfortunately in order for the spell to affect them they need to be in the room too."

Vladimir was hesitant he wasn't sure he could do this! But the spell would be hard to accomplish with just one of had to try. He nodded, "Okay. Let's do this."

America grabbed his hand as they entered the room, "I'm here for you," He said. the warmth from Alfred's hand gave him strength. He contemplated asking him to stay on the other side of the room, but he knew Alfred wouldn't like that. It was selfish. So he stayed quiet.

He held his breath as much as possible upon entering the room. Once the ritual was underway there'd be no avoiding it. But for now he tried his best. Remaining his and calm as Lukas prepared the spell. It would work better with candles but right now that wasn't an option. Lukas drew the diagrams carefully on the ground, using his sword to carve them in. Then he motioned for Romania to step forward so they could begin chanting. This spell took a lot of energy from them, but it was not so dangerous that it required blood as a medium. As Vladimir stepped forward Lukas began reciting the spell, "Fra sanden under føttene våre, og kreves av deg. Helbredet arr vår feil. Fjern eventuelle mørke fortid. Vær så snill. Returnere ødeleggelse bak oss på jorden forsiktig."

Vladimir prepared himself to be impacted with the scent of blood as he took a breath. It hit strong and hard. Making him momentarily lose train of thought. He regained it after just a second, focusing on the spell. It was hard to find the words, through the chaos that erupted in his head but he remained focused. Standing firmly he began to chant along with Lukas, "Din nisipurile de Sands of Time, eu vă întreb pe voi, întoarce soarta noastră sigilat. Inversa cicatricile de greșelile noastre. Ia înapoi sânge. Ascunde-l în pământ dumneavoastră. Să această domnie magie."

The words were recited three times before the spell was complete. Romania barely held out for it. The temptation was too high for him to deal with. He broke several times during the incantation. A light filled the room as well as utter and complete silence once the incantation was complete. Romania let out a sigh of relief as the scent faded away, and he felt himself in control once more. The light dimmed soon after to reveal the room as it had been, before he left. Injuries and stains of blood had all been erased from the room.

(Ladonia)

Ladonia turned the corner leaving room four, disappearing and reappearing in Alice's office. Sealand was catching up to him, and he looked suspicious of him. He was tired of hiding things, and he wasn't going to watch his friends become enveloped by the same suspicions that had destroyed the others.

Alice turned to see him standing by her desk. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be getting back to your group?" She asked.

"I was followed. And now he's all suspicious! I told you this wasn't a good idea!" Ladonia ranted.

She shrugged, "Sorry, but you're smart you can figure a way out of this."

Ladonia crossed his arms and looked serious, "Yeah. I think I did. I'm going to tell him."

Alice suddenly looked furious, although she kept it well under control, "No. You won't. I've told you before, you can't tell the others. It would ruin the objective of this experiment."

"I don't care! I'm not gonna watch my friends turn on each other like America's group did!" Ladonia shouted, this was ridiculous. He was tired of this stupid game Alice had created, and all her stupid rules!

"They won't end up like them," Alice said.

"Won't they? Look around you Alice. This is everyone! Those who are suspicious are threats, and those who aren't get hurt!" Ladonia was angry too. He was sick of her deciding everything for them. It was time he fought back.

"Look. I understand your concern. Talk to them, reason with them. say whatever you have to, just don't tell them what's going on. Their decision is theirs. Only they can decide how things will go down. Have a little faith they might surprise you," She tried to be sympathetic.

Ladonia shook his head, "I don't care what you say, if he asks. I'm telling him this time."

Alice was on the brink of losing her calm, "You can't do that! I'm telling you now. If you even try, I will pull you out of there. Ladonia this is important.

Ladonia didn't say anything, he just simply glared at Alice. 'We'll see' he thought. Before flashing out of the room. He chose his entry point carefully. Sealand was just about to turn the corner. He materialized behind him, beneath the camera that monitored this hallway. Sealand peered around the corner, as if looking for someone.

Ladonia was trying to be serious, but he couldn't pass up an opportunity like this. It was too great. He snuck up behind Sealand silently, and poked him in the back. Sealand jumped about five feet in the air, and spun around. He shoved Ladonia hard, "Don't scare me like that!"

Ladonia laughed. "What are you doing here? I thought you would be with Anaise. Didn't your path lead anywhere?"

"What about you? What happened to coming back at the end of your tunnel? This is a lot farther than that," Sealand said with hint of concern in his voice, but concern for who was still hidden.

Ladonia shrugged, "I got curious."

Sealand suddenly got defensive. As if he could tell Ladonia was hiding something from him, "There were people over there we don't know. That you were talking to like. Like you knew them."

"Well... there was this note on the wall back there, and and it had a name in this room number on it. So I found the room on a map, and thought I'd deliver it," Ladonia tried to pass off the same excuse. Damn this was getting dangerous!

"That doesn't explain anything though!" Sealand through up his hands in exasperation. There was a pause as he tried to suppress something, "There's a girl dead back there!" he made a motion of a knife across his neck, "She had her throat slit open," The fear in his eyes was maddening. "Tell me you didn't do that. Tell me you're not a traitor!"

Maybe distracting him by taking that shortcut had been a bad idea after all. He didn't think about how seeing that would affect him. Ladonia had watched it all happen. Every last fight. He didn't think about how that could sit on someones mind for so long. "I-I I'm not a traitor. A-And I didn't kill that girl! You're being ridiculous. Come on lets just get back to the others now," Ladonia tried to laugh it off. He didn't like all the questions. This had to stop before things got bad. he went to Sealand's hand and walk him back to the room.

"No!" Sealand pushed away. "I'm not being ridiculous! The-there's something wrong here. A-And you're going to tell me what!" Sealand stood firm.

Ladonia hated being told what to do. But he didn't blame Sealand. No, it wasn't sealand's fault. Nope, it was Alice who had orchestrated all of this. Well if she was going to have him be her aron boy. Then he was going to tell Sealand. Forget what she said. He didn't care anymore. "Your right. Something is wrong here. And you know what? I'm going to tell you everything," Ladonia smirked.

I leaned into the computer screen, raising the volume from this particular security camera. He wasn't really going to do it right? He was just going to lead him to believe something else, like he'd done before. Right? Damn it! I wasn't prepared for this! I sent out a broadcast to all the security cameras. A message to Ladonia to report to me immediately. My threats were empty against him. Had he realized it? I actually couldn't do anything to pull him out now. Not unless I went in and dismantled all of the security cameras. He could just keep coming back. This was about all I could do to stop him. the others were easy to control. Bring them back here, with a thread of magick attached to them. The only one who might be able to figure it out would be England, but that wasn't a problem now.

I collapsed onto my desk as I heard what Ladonia said. He was ruining everything! All my careful planning! He had damn well better make use of it.

Sealand looked up at him a little confused. He didn't expect it to be that easy. "If you knew something. Then why didn't you tell us before?!" He asked.

Ladonia rolled his eyes, "Cause I'm not supposed to. Well you know what? Screw your rules Alice!" Suddenly his vision became blocked with messages. "I don't care anymore. This is so stupid!"

"Wh-Who's Alice?" Sealand asked.

"The same person who wrote the note, and the same person dragged us here," Ladonia said.

"So... you know her?"

"That's not the point," Ladonia shook his head, "First of all, we need to recover your memories."

"My... Memories?" Sealand asked, "You can do that?"

Ladonia shrugged, "I don't know. but it's worth a shot anyways. Let's see. just think really hard when I tell you things. Okay?"

Sealand nodded eagerly.

"To start with. Your name is Sealand. Not Peter. Your a british port off the coast of England. Although you'd probably never say that. You'd say you were a country."

"I-I think I remember that," Sealand said. As he thought hard about it. Alice's spell must not have been as powerful this time, if he could remember this much already. "What else?" Sealand asked.

Ladonia froze. Oh god! what else could he say. sealand rarely shut up! but most of the time Ladonia was barely listening. Now he had to think of more?! "Umm. Well, Our group, minus Ivan and Yao, Is the majority of the micronation club. do you remember that?"

Sealand slowly nodded, "so that would make you..." there was a long pause as he thought, "Ladonia?" he asked as if he was still slightly unsure.

Breakthrough! Yes! "Yeah. That's right. I'm Ladonia. Do your remember any of the others?"

Sealand, "I think so..." He blinked a few times, "Wait. Yes. yes. I remember them! I remember everything!" He shouted, pumping his fist into the air.

Ladonia let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure how much more he could say.

"But. It still doesn't make sense. Why are you here? and China and russia are here too? they weren't with us before we woke up in the maze."

"They came back to try and help keep things from getting too violent. They went through something like this two days or something ago. So they thought they'd make sure no one got hurt. They're all failures honestly," ladonia said.

"Like what happened to... her name was seychelles wasn't it? I think I met her before. She was nice," Sealand seemed sad.

"Don't worry. She'll be fine by this time tomorrow. Nothing that happens in here is permanent... except the memories," Ladonia tried to comfort him.

"Seriously?!" Sealand sounded happy.

"Yeah. We just have to wait for people to come to their senses. Once everyone's calmed down we can leave."

"So you know where the exit is?!" Sealand sounded excited.

Ladonia shrugged, "Yeah. I think I'm the only one she told. But it doesn't matter, it won't open until everyone is back. So it's not important. Anyways we should get back to the others."

"Yeah! I can't wait to tell them what's going on!" Sealand shouted running down the hallway.

Ladonia hesitated. Maybe he should tell him not to tell the others. It was supposed to be a secret after all. He thought better of it. Why not? It looked like Alice couldn't do anything about it after all. The message across the cameras had disappeared now. Ladonia just laughed as he followed Ladonia down the hall. A smirk crossed his face. Looks like he won.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey! :D leaving off the month with an epic Russia chapter. yeah basically the whole chapter is about Russia . It's the longest chapter so far so I hope it tides you over until end of November. :( sorry this is the last one until then. See you all soon!

* * *

(Russia)

Spain darted to the side. What the hell was happening? They were just heading back to their group. When out of nowhere Russia had popped up. And he was covered in blood! The pipe swung down again.

Spain just barely dodged it this time. Landing against the wall. It was a hopeless battle. They were unarmed. Against one of the strongest super nations to date. Sure he might have lost some strength since the dissolution of the Soviet union, but he was still incredibly powerful. Spain got up as as the metal pipe came crashing down once more.

"Ufufu," Russia laughed, "This might be more fun than I thought." He remarked on Spain's agility. He still knew he was going to win. He could easily outmaneuver them at any point. But he wanted to make a game out of this. Like he had as a kid. He had to fight so much as a kid. He had grown to depend on this sort of feeling whenever he had to fight.

"Russia! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Spain shouted at Russia, as he tried to avoid another attack. He then looked to Romano, who was still frozen in the corner. Their tunnel as it would happen, also turned out to be a dead end.

Romano watched in shock as more fighting continued around him. He watched Spain fight to defend them both. While he just stood there. Damn it! Why couldn't he fight?! Why couldn't he move?! He just watched in fear as it happened. What gave Spain the courage to fight when he couldn't. He let the fear and self loathing boil up inside him. Channeling it into his clenched and shaking fists.

Russia looked to where Spain had looked. "Oh. So is this your weak spot, da?" Russia asked grinning maniacally. He'd found it. He could tell by the reaction Spain had. Strange, that his weak spot had been another person though. He took a step towards Romano. This order suited him just fine. He saw no change in the outcome of his life. His destiny had already been decided long ago. This was such a minor part in it.

Spain acted on instinct when he saw Russia had abandoned their fight to attack Romano. "Noo!" He shouted jumping in front of him. Russia brought the entire force of the pipe down onto Spain.

The impact left him bruised, and his hands stung like they were on fire, but he managed to block the impact of pipe. Spain panted for a fraction of a second before turning behind him, "Romano! Run! You have to get away from here while you still can!"

"B-But W-What about you?!" Romano tried to sound angry, while he was truly just frightened.

Spain clung to the pipe as Russia tried to break free. He smiled, "I'll be fine. Just get some help! Get somewhere safe!"

Romano clenched his fists tighter. He was sick of always running away. He wasn't going to do it here either. Not when Spain was right there trying to protect him as always. Couldn't he do something?! Romano charged, headbutting Russia Russia in the side as hard as he could. The force of it managing to knock him down.

"Romano. I thought I told you to run!?" Spain pleaded with him, picking himself up.

"Shut up bastardo. I'm not sitting back and letting it happen again," Romano said still facing forward. That took almost all the willpower he had saved up. Could he even do it again? Would he have to?

Spain knew he meant what had happened the last time they had to fight. He had accidently shot Antonio at that time. But this was nothing like what happened then. "Aww Roma. It's okay Espania can take care of himself si. You should get somewhere safe," Spain pleaded with him.

"I said shut up you tomato loving bastard! I can DO this," Romano said. He couldn't listen to Spain anymore. If he tried to talk him out of it one more time he was going to cave. As it was he was scared out of his skin!

"Roma-" Spain started to say.

Before he could even finish his sentence, Russia was on his feet, and now he was angry. He'd had enough of playing around. This was serious now. Win or die. Those were the consequences of the game. A dark aura surrounded him, as he was surrounded by the memories of his childhood. The cold. The dark. The despair. The torture. He regained his will to fight. He fought to escape that nightmare!

He swung the pipe down hard. Barely missing the two of them as they dodged in separate directions. Now he had to decide which of them to attack first. He turned left, swinging his pipe into the turn. It struck Spain across the shoulder knocking him over. His head struck the floor once before he managed to catch himself. The ringing making him slow. Russia brought his pipe up to land another blow, but was halted.

He staggered backward as she felt his scarf pull against his throat, making breathing hard. He spun around, unraveling the scarf off of his shoulders. Romano held the other end, trying to pull Russia back.

Memories surrounded him. That scarf was important to him. His elder sister gave it to him back when he was still a child. It was one of the few pleasant memories he had of his childhood. He wouldn't let it become defiled by someone else's hands. It carried with it his past and future. It had been a long time since he remembered feeling this angry. He locked most of his emotions away when he was young. It wasn't like he had much of a choice. It had become too hard on him. Since then he had become so good at faking it he barely remembered what it felt like to feel emotion now.

He let anger take over him. It was a violent pleasant sensation. It had been such a long time since he felt emotion like this. Saying he felt nothing was probably wrong though. He still felt emotion at times. But it was usually faint. And he only reacted in a way he thought he was supposed to. Now he let the anger envelop him. Building up more strength as he wielded it into his pipe. In the blink of an eye the pipe arched and crashed down onto Romano.

It hit him square in the chest collapsing his ribs all at once as his legs doubled under him landing in strange positions. Romano let out a cry of pain, but it was halted as his lungs deflated. His chest wouldn't move. The weight was too strong! Tears budded arounded his caramel colored eyes, dripping off his face. His mouth remained open as he continued to try and breathe in. The pipe protruded from his chest. He had barely acknowledged it's presence in his struggle for air, now he noticed. It began to move, jostling broken pieces of bone the were once his ribs. Cutting into everything in their path. He gave up on breathing. He coughed once, as blood started to pour into his torn up lungs. The pipe came out with a heavy tug. He felt like he was going to break, as it did. But he was already broken. Now he felt nothing. His mind felt fuzzy as his vision blurred, more than it already had. Through the numbness that had enveloped his body he felt a heavy plop, onto hit chest, which must have been what was left of the inside of his chest. His heart by some miracle, was still intact. Which was the only thing still keeping him alive.

He was almost gone by the time he heard the scream. Antonio's voice as he tried to fend off Russia on his own. The stupid bastard. Why didn't HE run when he had the chance. Romano found a will to to stand. Gagging his way to breathing again, he sat up. His lungs were so full of blood, and so crushed he wouldn't make it more than another minute. He swallowed deep gulps of air, trying his best to ignore the burn in his lungs as he did. The burn made him want to fall over and end it. He knew he couldn't survive this. But maybe Spain could. At least one of them should make it out of there. He used all of his remaining energy, and his entire will, to stand. He couldn't see more than a giant blur as he did. Only his body's screams of agony were visible to him. He managed to see Russia's outline and Antonio's as they moved faster than romano could keep up with.

Romano charged Russia again. Running as fast as his body could manage. He hadn't realized just how broken his legs felt, until they were put to the test. 'Just don't trip,' he told himself. He blacked out the second of impact, falling into the void as he landed on the floor. He didn't know just how hard he hit. Only that it was enough to make him lose consciousness. Which was the only thing that kept his heart pumping.

The impact barely phased Russia at all. Instead the impact only seem to harm Romano. Russia only staggered a few feet away, before coming right back in for another attack.

Meanwhile Spain was at Romano's side, "Roomaaanooooo!" He cried kneeling over Romano's corpse. He cupped Romano's face. "No! Romano. You have to come back to me. Please! Romano!" Tears fell heavily from his face, landing onto Romano's face. No words came from Romano's lips. Not even a change in expression. His heart had fallen silent.

Russia moved in while Spain wasn't paying attention. He had made an opening for Spain's weak spot. Now he was totally exposed. It was almost too easy. He brought the pipe down onto Spain's head crushing it. He laughed. A dark laugh as Spain's skull concaved and bled out onto the floor, next to Romano. There was a small stir from Spain. Russia quickly silenced that; crashing his pipe through Spain's heart. There was a splash of blood, as it squirted from the injury, and then pooled over his back.

(China)

China turned the corner again. He heard people yelling this way. He hoped it wasn't as he feared. He stopped mid run as he turned the bend. He didn't want to believe what he saw in front of him. A cracking sound echoed in his head, along with the image of the pipe moving down. Then the wet sound of blood being squished out... and Russia's smile. That's what disturbed him the most. He could handle the grotesqueness of the scene, but he'd never forget that face as long as he lived.

What had happened to him?! What the hell was going on?! This wasn't the Russia he knew. He'd seen him become distant and sometimes downright scary! But this wasn't him. He'd never attack his friends. Would he? "Russia!" Was all China could say in the shock of the moment.

Russia froze inside at the sound of the voice. It might be seen through his eyes if you looked. A part of his kinder side came back to him. Still trying to keep him at bay. It was China. He could always recognize the voice. Why did he have to go and follow him!? Why couldn't he have just stayed back and protected the others?! He had tried to run. Really he did. But instead of running away, it seemed he just kept running into trouble. Inside he was frozen stiff. He didn't know what to do! He was terrified.

However, he continued to act, as if his internal turmoil meant nothing. Russia ripped the pipe out from Spain's back. Spain, didn't flinch as he did, just flopped back onto the cold hard floor lifelessly. He'd done it again, he realized, and this time he had no excuse. He never did really. It's just this time it was much worse. They knew what was going on. They had no reason to attack him, and they weren't even armed! It was obvious that he had started it.

"Russia! What happened here?! I don't understand aru!" China shook his head. This scene made no sense. There couldn't be a rational reason why this happened, could there? And yet he still wanted to know. No, he needed to know just What could have caused this, "They aren't even armed! Please aru. Tell me what happened!"

Russia had refused to look at China this entire time. Now he looked up, and smiled, "We were just playing a little game. Ufu." 'That's right,' he told himself. It was just a very dangerous game. He offered to play. They could have refused. He always gave them the first move. If they didn't move. Then he would have moved on. But that never happened. Given the chance, they always swung.

China cringed. This wasn't right. There was something wrong with him. "What is wrong with you aru!" China took a few steps forward. He still wasn't sure what it was, but he was going to find out. He wasn't going to wait until it had completely swallowed him.

"Don't move!" Russia warned, as he watched China inch closer to him, "One more step. and you have to play too." He hoped that China would leave. He understood that he could never be forgiven now. He'd failed worse than he ever had before. He hadn't even managed a step forward this time, but now he'd fallen so far behind; that he would be left out in the cold the rest of his life.

China took a deep breath. At this point he knew of only one way to truly get to the bottom this. "How can I play if I don't even know the rules aru?" China asked.

"Ufufu. Everyone knows the rules. Fight to win. If you win you live. If you lose... something important is taken from you," Russia described the rules of war, like the rules to a child's game. In times when the world was truly at war, anything goes. Russia had witnessed this firsthand far too often.

China took in a deep breath. It was going to be difficult, but he was going to figure out what was going on, and put a stop to it. He pulled the kung fu swords off his back. They had been used far too often as of late. "Alright. I'll play, but only if you answer my questions. You can have the first move," He hoped Russia would take the bait. Either way though, he was in the win. If Russia refused to fight him, then maybe things weren't as bad as they looked. And if he did... then he would still get his questions answered. That is if he could hold out for that long.

Russia's eyes filled with shock. He wasn't serious, was he? He couldn't really want to fight him. He realized he must be even further lost than he first thought, for even China to hate him this much. He couldn't say it was just a joke now though. It was too late. China had already seen what he'd done, and decided to fight him.

So now he found himself at another stalemate. He'd been given the first move. As far as he could remember, that had never happened. He wasn't even sure what to do. He let his fear envelope him once more in the form of a purple aura. Invisible to everyone but him, his memories were there. Floating endlessly, replaying again and again, all of what he feared. He used them to fuel him. To help him focus on what he was doing. The fight at hand. He clutched the metal pipe tightly, and charged. He didn't even look. He didn't want to.

China blocked the impact with one of the swords. The other one hung at his side. He could have used it, to either overpower Russia's attack, or to add in a side attack. But he did neither. This fight wasn't about winning, and it wasn't about being the most powerful. Honestly, China didn't even expect to win. This fight was just about finding answers, and so that's all he would do.

There was an aura that surrounded Russia, that reminded him of someone that was hurt. There was something else in it too, but he just couldn't see it yet. With some more time maybe he could. China was experienced with the ancient magicks. He knew very little about the modern magick of the current century, but he had never forgotten the old kinds that people revered as miracles now. He saw how they worked, and the magick working behind it. He saw what the others had forgotten how to see.

"Russia," China spoke through gritted teeth as he tried to keep back the pipe using only half his strength, "What happened to Poland back there. It was you wasn't it aru? Why?! What happened aru?!"

Russia didn't answer. Couldn't answer. He didn't know himself. His mind went back to what was in front of him. He had to remain focused if he was going to win. He couldn't lose. He'd lost before a few times. He never wanted to go through something like that again. And so he fought to make sure he never would.

China thought he caught a glimpse of something important. But it disappeared after a moment. Whatever it was, wasn't strong enough to be visual. China dodged the second attack, stepping quickly to the side. "Now that's not fair. It's against the rules not to answer my questions aru," China said remaining calm. So far his attacks were open and obvious. They packed a punch, but if he was smart he could still easily avoid them.

Russia seemed not to be listening. That irritated China, he wasn't making it easy for him. He founded an opening in the third attack, and made a slice for his coat. It tore at the side ripping open. The tear was real, and if China hadn't been watching Russia's movement. The cut could have even injured him. But he avoided that. The battle had not escalated to the point that would warrant physical harm. Russia was by no means let off for killing so many people. However, that's not what this was about. It played a major role, but this wasn't about punishing Russia. It was about figuring out why it had happened.

Russia backed up a step. That was the first blow he'd been dealt today. It wasn't powerful by any means; it hadn't even cut through his undershirt, but it was enough to bring a sense of reality back to him. It reminded him once more of his reason for fighting. He could be hurt here. He was not invincible. It also reminded him of the rules. He'd agreed to them when they started. Now he had to honor them. Cheaters were worthless.

He tried to think. What had he thought of then? What had he told himself? As self centered and half baked as the reasons were. They were still the only ones he could offer. At least then he could say he answered, "Lithuania was going to give us away. But we can't have that, da?! So I tried to stop him... I missed."

China could see it now. As Russia focused, the images became cleared. There were so many of them! It was as if he couldn't let go of the past. Thousands of scenes, some clear, and some blurry, played around and around Russia. Many of them of that scene. Key moments. China assumed these were the times, that if someone had said something else it would have changed the outcome. However, quite a few of them were scenes from Russia's past. As if he were trying to keep the memories close.

Now China had to rethink his next question. He was going to ask how Poland got so beat up, if had been an accident, but he could see most of that from the memories that surrounded him. Given that Lithuania kept appearing, he thought that might be the best to bring up. If his goal was to get to the bottom of what was going on. Then this would definitely lead him there. "What about Lithuania aru? What happened to him? I thought he was you friend aru!" China demanded the answer. But the fight continued. However now as he fought, China could see the pain Russia had tried so hard to keep from him.

Russia knew he had walked himself into a corner. China was better than him. How could he find all his weak spots so easily?! He thought he'd done well to hide them! But still the fight progressed. Russia looked for an opening in China's stance. But there was none. At least, not one he could see. He sought to create one by attempting to bring the pipe down on China's right shoulder, while moving in to punch him in the gut. The attack failed of course. China had managed to see right through Russia's ploy. Catching his hand and the pipe, while sandwiching the hilt of his swords between them.

Russia managed to breakaway, but not before China had managed to kick him in the gut. His own attack had been turned against him.

Russia thought about what China asked him again during this time. He had to answer. Even if he didn't want to. Memories of his childhood surrounded him. Lithuania in almost everyone. What had he done?! It was all his fault! He didn't even understand it himself! "Alice took him away... I-I don't know anything else," He answered shaking himself. China was getting to him. He couldn't let that happen. He refocused on the fight. Swinging his pipe down with both hands, hoping to gain some leverage.

China recognized the scenes that replayed around Russia. Although Russia hadn't done a very good job of answering his question, it didn't matter. It had Russia thinking hard about what he was doing. That's what was important. Besides, now China had a pretty good idea of where the problem lay with Russia. "Then why are you fighting? What pushes you to fight aru?" China asked. He could get it out of him. At the very least he'd begin to understand better.

Russia wavered to the point of almost freezing in the middle of another attack. The question stung like pouring vodka on a fresh wound. He became surrounded by the memories of war. Every last horrific battle was re-lived at once. Among them were the times as a child that he'd been too weak. The times that he'd fallen victim to the violence of others. Russia couldn't bring himself to answer this question. He honestly wasn't sure anymore, "I-I don't know."

China watched as the aura grew stronger and the memories that flooded through it became more vivid and more cluttered. He might not have said anything but China could see it. The darkness that cluttered his heart stemmed from this. "I think you do. Think harder on it aru," China told him. He had to make him realize it.

Russia wished China would just leave it alone. He didn't want to think about it. But he had to. "I-It's because I won't let them hurt me. You can understand that, da?" Russia attempted to convey his reasons.

China definitely had his sympathies for Russia. He was so terribly lost. "If that is true. Then why did you attack, Spain and Romano aru. They weren't even armed!" China dodged the pipe again. This time it was just inches from his face. He needed to focus just a bit more on the fight. Or else this would not end well.

Russia noticeably flinched as the words hit like an attack of their own. The scenes from this battle played over in his head. Why DID he do this?! He didn't understand! He was so scared he just acted on instinct. he didn't know how to answer anymore. This game wasn't fun anymore. "I-I I wasn't going to let them hurt me," He stuttered out, taking up a defensive position.

"Hurt you? But they weren't even armed," China said keeping the fight going limply. At this point the fight was fairly pathetic. The blows couldn't even be considered half force, and there were large breaks between each attack.

Russia grew strength from vindication, "But they would have. After what happened they would hate me. When they got the chance. They would have. A-And I might not have been strong enough then." He tried to sound strong. picking up his pipe again, to keep fighting. He had to keep fighting. He had to. But his pipe felt heavy now. Why was that? This didn't make sense either.

So this was the bottom of the issue. He'd discovered where the heart of Russia's trouble lied. The images swirled around him mercilessly torturing his soul. It was no wonder he had gotten lost with no one to guide him. Russia had gotten so turned around he didn't know which way was up. It was going to take more than a decade to get him back to where he should be. China took in a deep sigh. Well he'd better get started. He hoped russia was a quick study. "Russia you can't just start fights, because you think something so remote might happen. What happens happens aru. No one knows the future, and you can't kill everyone because one day something might happen."

"But I'm terrified that something like that will happen!" He didn't want to fight anymore. He was so scared that one day he wouldn't see it coming, and that someone he trusted might hurt him. He couldn't handle the thought that that might happen.

China tried to help him understand, "Russia, you can't just attack because you're scared. You need to have something you're trying to protect aru. Whether it's yourself or a friend. If you attack because you don't know there won't be anyone left to be there for you when things get bad. You need to put some trust into your frinds aru."

Russia shook his head, trying to swing the pipe again, "No! I-I don't have any friends. T-They're all gone!" Flashes of the dissolution of the Soviet Union surrounded him. So many heartbreaking versions of it. As he let out the pain from that day. Trying, like a child with a stick, to swing the pipe again.

The strength of the hits were nothing more than the strength of being patted on the back. China ignored them. It was time to end this pitiful fight. China knock Russia over with a strong force, pinning him down.

Russia struggled pitifully against china, but he had already given up on this fight. China's grip was too strong for him to break free. He closed his eyes tightly waiting for his punishment. it wouldn't be the first time he'd been hurt from war, but he feared this time would be worse than before. Whatever his punishment was he deserved it. He braced himself to feel pain.

None came. Instead he felt China's right hand release it's grasp on him, to brush back his bangs. Then soft lips place on his forehead. After a moment they pulled away, and Russia looked up. He didn't understand. Where was his punishment? This wasn't how the game was ended! He didn't understand how China could be so kind to him, after what he'd done. He didn't understand why he was so gentle! Tears streamed down Russia's face as he began to cry. China held him close. Consoling him; which just made him cry harder. The guilt had eaten him away. Releasing his emotions. Although they had never truly disappeared. He just wouldn't listen to them before.

"They haven't left you Ivan. Just because they no longer live under your house doesn't mean they are no longer your friends," China told him, letting light in on a dark matter. Then China whispered something else into his ear, "I won't let you be alone aru." Russia only cried harder.

"Why are you crying aru?" China almost chuckled, as he continued to console Russia. This was better. It seemed he'd managed to bring russia back to his senses. to think that he'd been through all of that? How long had he been wandering around, without any guidance? He somehow expect that he never had anyone to begin with.

Russia sniffed, "Because I don't understand why Yao is so nice to me."

China smiled as Russia rested his head of his shoulder, "It's because this is what I was fighting for aru."

Russia's eyes widened with shock as he realized, and then flooded over with tears again. He hadn't thought of that. You fought to protect something important to you. He never considered what russia was fighting for was him. He didn't think he'd done anything to deserve that kind of devotion. He'd always been following behind as everyone had fun together. He wondered what that was like.

China let him continue to cry for a little while. It was fine to just sit there until Russia was ok again. Then he could move on to the more serious matters, but not until then. He need Russia to be calmed down enough first. He'd forgiven Russia for what he'd done here, but that didn't mean he was completely off the hook for it.

After a while, the tears dried up. When they had russia realized he wasn't alone anymore. This was the first time he'd cried in front of anyone. It was also the first time he'd ever been consoled. It sent over a wash of peace. He imagined the younger him, that was left behind in the snow, being taken by the hand and rejoined with the others.

China pulled back from the hug to look at Russia, who looked sad, but in a way that almost made him look sleepy instead. It was a goofy expression, that almost made China lose his seriousness and laugh. But then he remembered where he was, and what was important at the moment. "Are you done crying now?" He asked.

Russia nodded.

China punched him in the arm, hard enough that despite the heavy coat it would leave a bruise, "That, was for killing three people!"

Russia looked away shamefully, "I-It was actually five," He answered guiltily.

China through up his hands in exasperation, "FIVE?! Honestly Russia. I don't know what I'm going to do with you aru," He shook his head. Russia was such a child still. However China expected that was because he never had someone to teach him how to grow up.

Russia took the scolding bravely, staring at his hands. The blood, still soaking the black gloves, glinting in the light.

China sighed, "It's alright. Just bring them back aru."

Russia looked up. Bring them back? He had forgotten he could do that. He hesitated, there was a shred of fear in his heart, he wasn't sure could ever be eradicated. He wasn't sure he could do this, "I-I can't" He managed to get out.

China looked at him, "What do you mean you can't aru? You can't just leave them like this."

"But I'm scared. They hate me. I know they do. I don't want them to hate me Yao!" He somehow found himself confiding in China. It seemed natural to him. Although he couldn't figure out why.

China sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose. Russia really did have a flawed sense of logic. That was going to be hard to fix. To him it seemed 'it was better for them to be dead, than to hate me'. China tried to explain it to him, "Russia. whether you bring them back or... Alice will. Either way they're coming back aru. And they are more likely to forgive you though if you apologize. The ones who were your friends will probably take even less time."

Russia listened to China. He was right. It made sense. He wanted to do just that. he wanted to apologize and make them understand that he was sorry. But there was a fear that still crawled at his chest, "But I'm scared Yao."

China caved. Russia needed to stop being so cute when he was being scolded, "It's alright. I'm right here beside you aru. You're not alone. And no matter what they say I'll still be here aru." He put a hand on Russia's shoulder.

Russia calmed down a little. Although his fear was still there, and it didn't help that the first step in recovering them was to injure himself. He had no problem dealing with pain; it was the simple act of doing it that caused him trouble. He knelt beside Spain and Romano, lifting the metal pipe in his hands. It had never felt so heavy to him before. Covered in blood and malice. It brought on destruction. Well, this time it would do the opposite. this time the pain it caused would bring life. He brought it up into the air, ignoring the fear that boiled under his skin, as he brought it down onto his leg. He didn't hesitate which was good. If he had hesitated then It would have been harder on him. Pain swelled as he gripped his leg. The pipe had done it's job. It drew blood. However, even this small, injury, was nothing compared to the strength he'd brought down on the two by his feet. He let that guilt take over him. He really was sorry. He had just been so scared, he didn't know how to think. He took off the glove of his right hand, and took the blood from his would to write between the the words forgive me. His hands felt cold as he wrote the words. He'd write them a thousand times, if it would mean forgiveness, but he knew even that could not assure it. China's hand landed on his back, to comfort him. It worked, calming him down, so that he was not so afraid.

He had almost finished the last word when they began to glow. A white flame enveloping them. It engulfed the words, and surrounded the two he had killed. Russia prayed he would not be hated, As he began to hope. That hope creating a sense of warmth long lost deep within himself. It was a white flame of it's own; however caused by a different sort of magick. An ancient magick that had been around before man had ever set foot on the earth. The kind that could heal the wound of the past and reshape the future.

Romano twitched uncomfortably, as he felt the fuzzy warmth in his head fade away, and his consciousness return. He sat up groggily, as the memories return to him. Like running backwards down the timeline of his life. He was suddenly drinking in deep breaths of the sweet air he had neglected for so long. The feel of the life giving air on his lungs was euphoric, as each breath pumped his heart keeping him alive. He looked to Spain who was just waking up. A sense of relief washed over him, to see him alive. Then of sadness because he knew that meant he hadn't been strong enough to save him in the first place. he must have been brought back. He wondered ho-

"Lovi?" His thought was cut off by the sound of Antonio's voice, lost. Spain's green eye's peeked out as he began to wake up. They closed again, until they were suddenly wide open, and he sat straight up. "Lovi! I thought you were dead! but then-," He broke off as the rest of it came back. And then noticed the figure that knelt beside the two of them.

Russia had remained silent this entire time, fiddling with his fingers as he looked away guiltily. His expression was much calmer now, and not so filled with insanity as it had been before. He looked almost innocent, like a child who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. However it was very unsettling for the two of them. As Spain stopped to take notice, so did Romano, flinching at the sight. The fear and confusion over exactly what had happened was still their. The fear and to an extent the hatred for Ivan was still there as well. however they couldn't help but feel even more confused as to the fact that he had brought them back. It didn't make any sense. This kind of spell required the persons willingness, he couldn't have been forced. So why then were they both sitting here now?

Russia began to speak feeling a nudge from China. he could barely move, he was so overcome with fear. He tried desperately to keep it from showing in his voice, or to reach his face in the form of tears. He didn't want to cry in front of anyone. The only person he'd ever allow himself cry in front of now would be Yao. Because Yao had seen a side of him he thought no one ever would. Even when he wanted to bury it so deep he couldn't see it himself, Yao could still see the true him. And he'd be forever grateful for that.

Russia took in a shaky breath. His body felt on fire, burning right behind his ears, and he could hear his heart race in his head. He still could not manage to look up, "I-I I'm s-sor-ry," He managed to choke out as his throat began to throb with the pain of holding back tears. A few fell betraying him. He wiped them away quickly, as if that would keep them from seeing. Dammit! He didn't want them to see him cry!

How were they supposed to react to that!? Were they supposed to cave in right there and tell him it was okay? Well it wasn't! It fucking wasn't. Romano was frustrated with entire situation. It was not okay, and nothing he said could make it that way. At the same time though. This might be one of those times it was best to forget it and move on. Russia had brought them back, and now he was fucking crying as he apologized. There was no way he was going to forgive him, he wasn't that compassionate. However he might be able to just let this one go.

"What happened?" Spain asked. He was still trying to understand, how any of this had happened in the first place.

Russia was at a loss for words. He didn't know how to explain it so they could understand. Most likely they would just get mad at him if he said he was scared. Or that he didn't want them to attack him first. China had understood, because by some miracle China could understand him. He could understand the roots of his very existence.

He didn't have to answer though. China understood the fragility of question, and given that russia was still trying to figure it out himself, he decided to answer for him, "It was all just a big misunderstanding aru. He was just really confused. I talked with him and he's got it figured out now. So this should never happen again aru."

Spain failed to see how this had all stemmed from a misunderstanding. Although he wasn't going to bring it up again. He looked to Romano trying to gage his opinion. Romano couldn't have looked like he cared less. He wore a bored expression, as he played in the sand with his finger. Spain laughed to himself at how cute his little Roma could be. At least he still had him. "Alright. Then we need to get back to our group. Their probably wondering where we are," Spain stood up, "Come on Romano."

Another chord was struck in Russia's heart as he remembered Netherlands and Belgium. From the area and same lack of weapons, he had already figured out that they were also in Spain's group. But he couldn't bring himself to say anything. they didn't seem mad at him. Upset, and maybe frustrated, but not mad. They still hadn't said they'd forgiven him, but he suspected he'd never hear those words. This was alright though. At least they didn't hate him, but he wondered what they'd do if they knew just how badly he'd messed up this time. That it went beyond just the two of them.

"Whatever, tomato bastard it's not like it matters," Romano complained, following him anyways. Russia waited until their footsteps were distant before he tried to stand up. He winced as he put pressure on his right leg. The injury was bad. Not life threatening, but it hurt like hell! he might have caused serious damage to his leg if it wasn't treated soon. Russia tripped as he tried to stand. China put Russia's arm around his neck and helped him walk. Russia used his pipe as a cane to help support him more as he walked.

"You did good aru," China praised Russia as they moved to revive the next person. he wondered if Russia would be able to make it all the way back. He'd traveled quite the distance.

Russia smiled feeling some strength return to him as he was praised. only a few times in his life. it spread a warm feeling throughout him. The hope he long ago lost felt warm in his chest as he felt it's warm light surround him.

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see you guys first Friday of December! (the 6th) Also please review! 3 I love hearing your thoughts. I'll get back to this story as soon as i possibly can ok? :)


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